Washington, Sept 8: American intelligence shows that Russia is using filtration centers in eastern Ukraine and Western Russia to detain, interrogate and in some cases abuse thousands of Ukrainians, a senior White House official has said.
Addressing media persons during her daily news briefings, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that the US assess that the Kremlin views filtration operations as crucial to their efforts to annex areas of Ukraine under their control.
At the United Nations later in the day, US Ambassador to the UN Thomas-Greenfield demanded that Russia halt its filtration operations immediately and allow the UN independent observers and humanitarian and human rights organisations access to these filtration sites and to those who have been sent to Russia.
The US ambassador presented newly downgraded information to the UN Security Council, saying that that the United States has information that officials from Russia’s Presidential administration are overseeing and coordinating filtration operations.
Russian Presidential administration officials are providing lists of Ukrainians to be targeted for filtration and receiving reports on the scope and progress of operations, she said.
State Department Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters at a separate news conference that filtration is a dehumanising word describing a massive campaign that the Kremlin has launched to imprison, forcibly depart or disappear those Ukrainian citizens that Moscow decides could be a potential threat to their control over Ukraine.
“The tactics Russia has used to collect information are invasive and victims of filtration are given no choice but to submit or face dire consequences. Russia has systematically used the practice of forced deportations previously, and the fear and misery it evokes for people forced to live under the Kremlin’s control are hard to overstate,” he said.
“We have newly downgraded information about how over the course of this conflict, Russia has increasingly relied on infrastructures, including facilities, technology, and transportation, to accommodate hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian citizens who have been and will be processed through these filtrations’ operations,” Patel said.
He said that Russian forces and Russian proxies in Russian controlled Ukraine are using dedicated information technology to support filtration operations, including online databases, tools, equipment, to support the gathering of biometric data and facial recognition, tracking and monitoring of Ukrainian cell phones.
“The United States has information that officials from Russia’s presidential administration are overseeing and coordinating infiltration operations. We are further aware that the Russian presidential administration officials are providing lists of Ukrainians to be targeted for infiltration and receiving reports on the scope and progress of operations,” he added.
The US assess that the Kremlin views filtration operations as crucial to their efforts to annex areas of Ukraine under their control.
“We demand that Russia halt its filtration operations immediately and allow the UN, independent observers, and humanitarian and human rights organisations access to these filtration sites,” he said.
“We call on the global community to join us in condemning this practice and calling for humanitarian access to be granted,” Patel said. (PTI)
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