Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk asked on Friday March 25 that the inhabitants of Mariupol, victims of the invasion of the Kremlin and “deportees” in Russia, can return. Ukraine has also asked the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to intervene to obtain the names of these people.
The mayor of Mariupol, bombarded and besieged for weeks by Moscow, had already accused Russia of deporting civilians to its territory. Vadym Boychenko had advanced on March 24 on Telegram a last assessment of 15,000 inhabitants taken “by force” on board buses, as well as “the confiscation of Ukrainian passports” residents stuck in place.
Only the east of the city is concerned for the moment
As early as March 20, authorities in the port city claimed that Russian forces had begun deporting residents of the Livoberezhna district, 7 kilometers east of central Mariupol, including those who had taken refuge in the building of a sports club.
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It is also in this district that is located a building taken by the Chechen forces on March 25th. Their leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, then claimed to have taken over the town hall of the city of Mariupol, an information later denied.
Refugees displaced to pro-Russian Ukraine
The freelance journalist and researcher for the Center for European Policy Analysis Olga Tokariuk corroborated these accusations on Twitter. She mentioned a friend whose mother, stuck in Mariupol, risked being deported to Russia against her will. Human rights lawyer Oleksandra Matviichuk shared the same information, saying she spoke to several people “transferred to Russia” and who had no choice: “Either they stayed and died, or they left. »
Olga Tokariuk explains that these displacements concern the eastern part of Mariupol, where the Russian forces would tell the inhabitants that the only possible road to leave the city leads to Donetsk, a city occupied by Moscow located in the Ukrainian separatist Donbass.
The ICRC, which Ukraine has asked to intervene to obtain the identities of the deportees, is present in Ukraine to protect the populations. Its president Peter Maurer had concluded a visit to Russia on March 24 to discuss with Moscow the aid to be provided to civilians.