From the beginning of its aggression against Ukraine, Russia began building a network of prisons and filtration camps to which Ukrainians were sent en masse.
In those "filtration camps," Russians are looking for people with combat experience and officials of the Ukrainian administration. The attitude of specific people towards Russia is also to be examined. Those who do not raise objections to the invaders are deported to Russia. Some of these people are forcibly conscripted into the Russian army and then sent to the front. Those who raise doubts are brutally repressed. They are tortured, forced to confess, or make statements against Ukraine, or they are brought to court as part of political trials. The involvement of the most important Russian secret service, the FSB, shows how much importance the Kremlin attaches to these actions.
The apparatus of repression prepared by the Russians was to be organized based on a system of prisons located in the occupied territories of Ukraine. The former seats of local Ukrainian authorities, particularly the local police and the State Migration Service of Ukraine, were to be used for this purpose. In regions where the Russians have not managed to adapt, buildings have taken over as a result of aggression, and filtration sites are organized in the form of tent cities or camps.
According to the intelligence data, filtering and verifying the detained Ukrainians lasts from several hours to several days. During this time, interrogations by the FSB and analysis of confiscated items are taking place. They check data carriers and social media activity. The Russians also check whether the detainees have traces of fights on their bodies and even what tattoos they have.
The system built by Russia is to operate on a massive scale. Estimated data show that over 1.5 million Ukrainians (including thousands of children) have been sent to prisons and filtration camps.
The Polish services managed to identify the places used for the described actions against Ukraine. Below are some specific locations:
- Donetsk
- Dokuczajewsk
- Manhusz
- Novoazovsk
- Starobeszewe
