21 detention sites identified in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory by U.S. State Department and Yale

Russian official who attempted to remove Putin from office faces conscription without military experience

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U.S. State Department and Yale claim to have identified 21 detention sites in Russian-controlled Ukrainian territory.

A report on Thursday, August 25, by Yale University researchers with the support of the US State Department, claimed that Russia is allegedly keeping Ukrainian captives in four types of detention sites in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. The report was then covered by the New York Times.

Russia and LDPR fighters are allegedly operating at least 21 facilities in the Donetsk region says the report. There are four types of objects involved in filtering: registration, detention, secondary interrogations, and detentions.

This Conflict Observatory investigation was conducted using open source data collection, analysis, and documentation. Each source was evaluated against the criteria established by the Berkeley Protocol for Investigating Digital Open Sources.

Set up in May, the Conflict Observatory was designed to document war crimes and other atrocities committed by Russian or Russian-backed forces in the Ukraine war.

Evidence of disturbed earth at the Volnovakha ‘correctional colony’ near the village of Olenivka was also identified on two recent occasions. This was consistent with mass graves they said. An explosion occurred at the prison compound on July 29, killing 53 Ukrainian prisoners of war.

The disturbed earth apparently predated this event. On July 27, two days before the explosion, a second area of disturbed earth appeared in the same area.

According to the report, the alleged conditions reported by those who have been released from the institutions investigated may be considered cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment under international humanitarian and human rights law.

These conditions included overcrowding, lack of access to adequate sanitation, insufficient food and clean water, exposure to the elements, denial of medical care, and the use of isolation. In some specific cases, the treatment suffered by those released, such as electric shocks, extreme isolation conditions, and physical violence, may amount to torture.

The U.S. National Intelligence Council released an unclassified report back in June in which it claimed to have identified 18 possible locations where detainees and prisoners were being held and processed in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine and western Russia.

Referring to these new findings, a statement released by the US State Department read:  “We again call on Russia to immediately halt its filtration operations and forced deportations and to provide outside independent observers access to identified facilities and forced deportation relocation areas within Russia-controlled areas of Ukraine and inside Russia itself”.

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Written by

Chris King

Originally from Wales, Chris spent years on the Costa del Sol before moving to the Algarve where he is a web reporter for The Euro Weekly News covering international and Spanish national news. Got a news story you want to share? Then get in touch at editorial@euroweeklynews.com

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