The intelligence agencies of Poland claim to have located camps where tens of thousands of Ukrainian children have been detained and adults have been savagely assaulted by occupying Russian soldiers.
According to Special Services Minister Stanislaw Zaryn, thousands of children and over 1.5 million other Ukrainians are being kept in various sites inside the seized territory where they are “transported en masse” and “subjected to torture.”
He said that “the Kremlin has organized a network of jails and filtration camps in which it is detaining imprisoned Ukrainians,” posting satellite images and the precise coordinates of “locations where there are Russian torture chambers used against Ukrainians.”
It happens as Human Rights Watch announces that it has spoken with scores of Ukrainians held by Russian soldiers, many of whom had wounds and exhibit symptoms of torture.
The aggressors conduct a verification of the arrested, seeking for those with combat experience and Ukrainian government officials, Zaryn stated.
They also research how various individuals feel about Russia.
The invaders often deport those who don’t oppose to their presence to Russia.
Some of these individuals are enlisted into the Russian army against their will and then deployed to the front.
Those who express misgivings face harsh repression. They are put through torture, made to testify against Ukraine or make remarks to that effect, or they are hauled to court to serve as props in mock political trials.
‘Russian FSB officers are responsible for the described actions against the civilian population, and they also ”interrogate” the detained Ukrainians.
‘The involvement of the most important Russian secret service in the repression against Ukrainians shows how much importance the Kremlin attaches to these actions.’
The sites are headquartered on the old offices of the Ukrainian police and the State Migration Service, the official claims.
Five places in various regions of southeast Ukraine, including Donetsk, Starobesheve, Dokuchayevsk, Manhush, and Novoazovsk, are depicted in photos as being under the hands of Putin’s soldiers.
“According to intelligence data, the process of sifting and validating captured Ukrainians lasts from several hours to several days,” the special forces minister stated.
‘During this time, interrogations by the FSB take place, the analysis of confiscated items, including data carriers, and even social media activity is carried out.
‘The Russians check whether the detainees have traces of fights on their bodies, and even what tattoos they have.
‘If someone arouses even a shadow of suspicion, he becomes the object of repression, which may result in death.
‘A terrible fate awaits also those who, after ‘positive verification’, are ordered to fight in the ranks of the aggressor.’
In an official statement, Zaryn clarified the whereabouts of the camps, saying: “The machinery of repression directed against Ukrainian society was organized on the basis of a system of jails situated in the seized areas of Ukraine.
‘The Russians use the former headquarters of local Ukrainian authorities, in particular the local police and the State Migration Service of Ukraine.
‘In regions where the Russians have not managed to adapt buildings taken over as a result of aggression, filtration sites are organized in the form of towns and tent camps.
‘The Polish services managed to identify the places that are used for the described actions against Ukraine.’
The allegations made by Zaryn that the invaders are forcibly detaining and torturing hundreds of citizens in Ukraine are corroborated by research published just a few days ago by Human Rights Watch.
The group claimed to have spoken with a large number of Ukrainian residents and POWs held by Putin’s forces in the parts of southern Ukraine that are under occupation and to have obtained comprehensive details of the cruel treatment they underwent.
‘Russian forces have turned occupied areas of southern Ukraine into an abyss of fear and wild lawlessness,’ said senior researcher Yulia Gorbunova.
‘Torture, inhumane treatment, as well as arbitrary detention and unlawful confinement of civilians, are among the war crimes we have documented.’
According to a news release posted on the organization’s website, its members spoke with 71 individuals from the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, including Kherson, Melitopol, Berdyansk, Skadovsk, and ten other cities and villages.
They documented 42 incidents in which Russian occupation troops either arbitrarily detained citizens or forcefully disappeared them, and several more occasions in which they were severely assaulted, tortured, and hospitalized.