The Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Laboratory (Yale HRL) in collaboration with the US State Department-supported Conflict Observatory used open-source information and high-resolution satellite imagery to map it. , According to the report, there is evidence to suggest that they were created even before the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and increased after the seizure of Mariupol in April. “The conditions reported by those released from the facilities examined here may constitute cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment under international humanitarian and human rights law,” the study says, adding that “the conditions include overcrowded facilities , lack of access to adequate sanitation facilities, insufficient food and clean water, exposure to the elements, denial of medical care and use of isolation”. “In some specific cases, the treatment described as having been suffered by those released, such as the use of electric shocks, extreme solitary confinement and physical assault, could potentially amount to torture if proven,” the study says. In a separate press release on Thursday, the US State Department described the “illegal transfer and deportation of protected persons” described in the study as “a serious violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention for the Protection of Civilians and constitutes a war crime”. The Volnovakha penal colony is one of the sites described in the study. The detailed findings suggest that it is a long-term facility for those who did not pass the screening along with prisoners of war who were surrendered after the siege of the Azovstal steel plant. The study notes the testimonies of apparent survivors who described, among other things: overcrowded cells, forced labor and even torture. Yale HRL says it has identified two areas of disturbed earth along the south and southwest sections of this facility that appear to be mass graves. , An account cited in the report by someone described as a “survivor” also claimed that a cellmate worked a shift digging graves inside the colony. There was a deadly explosion there in July that Ukrainian separatists say killed 53 prisoners, but the satellite imagery used for the report predates that. The Yale study notes that “without further research, including the possibility of independently excavating these sites, no definitive determination can be made about what these sites may contain based on the evidence in this report alone.”
Threats and humiliation
Earlier this year CNN spoke to several Ukrainians who went through “filtering” and described facing threats and humiliation during the process. They say they were asked about politics, their future plans and their views on the war. Some of the people who spoke to CNN said they knew others who had been captured by Russian or separatist soldiers and disappeared without a trace. The Kremlin has denied using the so-called infiltration camps to cover up crimes and target civilians in Mariupol. , In the Yale study, the Russian Embassy in Washington said the system “concerns checkpoints for civilians leaving the active combat zone. In order to prevent sabotage operations by Ukrainian nationalist battalions, Russian soldiers carefully inspect vehicles heading to safe areas “. He adds that he will “detain bandits and fascists” and that the Russian army does not create obstacles for civilians, but helps them by providing food and medicine. In a CNN report from July, Dmitry Vasenko, a Russian Emergencies Ministry official in Taganrog, said housing would be provided to Ukrainians, who were also free to seek work and send their children to school. “When hostilities end in the future, all these arrivals can make the decision to return to their homeland. Anyone who wishes to remain in Russia, the Russian government undertakes such an obligation — they will receive a full range of social services and be protected,” he said. When asked about the process for refugees to enter Russia, he said there are “filtering points” at the border. “They are checking people who appear aggressive towards the Russian Federation,” he said. “Filtering is done right on arrival, there are no ‘mass camps’. They are border crossing points, nothing more.” The self-proclaimed DPR has denied accusations by Ukrainian authorities of illegally detaining, filtering and mistreating Ukrainian citizens and said those arriving at what it calls “reception centers” are properly fed and given medical care. “The Donetsk Oblast filtering system operated by Russia and their proxies represents an urgent human rights emergency,” said Nathaniel Raymond, executive director of Yale HRL in the press release from the Yale School of Public Health. “International monitors need unfettered access to these facilities today. Every day that goes by without independent monitors at these locations increases the risk of serious human rights violations occurring with impunity.” According to the study’s methodology, “each source was evaluated using criteria established by the Berkeley Protocol for Open Source Digital Surveys.” He added that the data points “were cross-referenced with recent very high-resolution satellite imagery. Five independent sources had to confirm a site’s location and the filtering activities that allegedly took place there for the site to be included in the report. Twenty-one sites met or exceeded this limit”.
