"Foreigners". How the Russian Federation deports Ukrainians in the occupied territory

Authorities in the territories occupied by the Russian Federation use deportation as punishment for Ukrainians who do not cooperate and refuse to take Russian citizenship. How it happens - in the text of DW.

When in March 2022 the Russian army occupied part of the Zaporizhzhya region, Andrij (name changed for security reasons) worked as a director in a village school. The occupation authorities planned the beginning of the new school year according to the Russian curriculum. He organized a school for distance learners, and after the summer vacation he refused to head the institution.
The occupation authorities tried to convince Andrije to cooperate.
"Before September 1, armed men came with balaclavas on their heads. There were 11 such visits in total," recalls a man who lived 10 kilometers from the village.

Deportation to positions of the Armed Forces

In the summer of 2023, the Russians confiscated the Ukrainian passports of Andrij and his wife. "This was accompanied by threats that they would take me to Vasilivka and force me to go through a minefield," says Andri.
Vasilivka is an occupied city of the Zaporozhye region, where until the end of 2022 a checkpoint for the territory controlled by Ukraine functioned.
According to numerous testimonies of displaced persons, the occupying authorities closed this checkpoint, but continued to use it to deport Ukrainians – forcing them to go through mined territory to Ukrainian positions. Natalija Kaplun, coordinator of the war crimes documentation department of the charity foundation East SOS, talks about one of these cases. According to her information, in December 2022, the Russians convicted and deported the director of a village school in the Zaporozhye region because she continued to teach online classes in a Ukrainian school. The woman walked several kilometers to the territory controlled by Ukraine.
The cases of deportation through Vasilievka are also described in the reports of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission. Human rights activists tell the story of a couple who were imprisoned and later deported for distributing pro-Ukrainian leaflets. And, also, an employee of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant.
"In a video published on the Internet, it was shown how the Russian military police brought him to the checkpoint in Vasilijevka and, apparently, expelled him from the occupied territory. He has not been seen since then," say human rights activists.

Why teachers in the Kharkiv region became collaborators

Deportation to Ukrainian positions was also carried out from the occupied territory of Kharkiv Oblast. Specifically, the Mission's report describes how in August 2022, the Russian army detained and took to a checkpoint firefighters - two men and one woman. "According to international humanitarian law, it is prohibited to deport persons under protection from the occupied territory, regardless of the motives," human rights defenders note.

Mandatory issuance of a passport

Despite the threat, the Russians did not take the director of the village school Andrije to Vasilijevka. His family faced the next problem – the forced taking of a Russian passport. In April 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree requiring residents of the Zaporozhye, Kherson, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions occupied by the Russian Federation to obtain a Russian passport or register as foreigners by July 1, 2024. Otherwise, they can be deported.
"Already at the beginning of 2023, pressure began on people to change their passports as soon as possible and take a Russian one," recalls Andrij.
In addition, pensioners who received Russian passports were paid higher pensions than those with Ukrainian documents, this man added.
"The salary of citizens with a Ukrainian passport was 30 percent lower than that of those with a Russian passport. That's why the population gradually started to take these passports," concludes Andrij.
Although the Russians took away his Ukrainian passport from him and his wife, they did not want to take Russian citizenship.
"Until December 2023, we were still trying to somehow survive without Russian passports. But it was becoming more and more difficult - even to go outside the village, it was necessary to have at least some documents," says Andrij, who has already reached retirement age.  Eventually, the couple applied for Russian passports, but were denied without explanation.
Detention and interrogation

The new decree of the President of the Russian Federation foresees the deportation from the occupied territories of "foreigners" whose "extremist activities" threaten national security.
"Given the broad definition of the term "extremist activities" in Russian legislation, individuals may be at risk of deportation for expressing pro-Ukrainian views or criticizing official Russian narratives about the war," analyzes the UN Human Rights Mission.
That is probably why the occupation authorities decided to deport Andrija and his wife. In April of this year, armed men came to them again.
"They gave us a document and said: you have an hour to pack and you will be deported," recalls a man who entered the territory of the Russian Federation as a stateless person.
The couple was taken to Berdyansk, says Andrij. On the spot, they put black bags on their heads and took them to a building where other people were housed in separate rooms. Andrij and his wife spent the next six days there. Then the couple was taken to Melitopolj, to the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Two more men from Melitopolje and Pologivo were brought there.
"One was obviously careless with phone messages - he told a friend where the Russian equipment was. And the other didn't cooperate either," says Andrij.
 FSB officers interrogated detainees in Melitopolj, says Andrij.
"There was an offer to make a video showing how it shouldn't be done. How exactly? If I didn't cooperate, if the children were left without a teacher, if the school didn't work. They asked me: do you understand why we're evicting you, I say: No. Well, they say, because of people like you, the educational process in the new regions is disrupted," Andrij says.

Deportation to Georgia

The couple and two other men were put in the car. Andrij was afraid that they would be taken to Vasilivka and forced to walk through a mined area. Instead, he hoped to reach Kolotilivka - the only checkpoint between the Russian Federation and Ukraine. However, the next morning the deportees found themselves in Gornji Lars, on the border between the Russian Federation and Georgia. There, their passports and phones were returned and they were ordered to go to Georgia.
"The Georgians welcomed us cautiously. As the volunteers from Kherson told me later, the Russians took them to prison," Andrij remembers.

The husband and wife traveled to Tbilisi, where volunteers put them up in a hotel. In seven days, after processing the documents for going abroad, the couple returned to Ukraine and are now trying to find accommodation in a new city.
"Costs are, of course, very high. But until summer, at least we have something to walk in," says Andrij.
Leaving their home, the couple packed only two backpacks.
These four residents of the occupied region of Zaporozhye are not the only ones deported to Georgia by the occupation authorities. According to the information of the archbishop of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Metropolitan Serhiy Horobtsov of Donetsk and Mariupol, two priests were "deported" from the occupied Donetsk region to Georgia this spring - father Hristofor Hrimli from Kamyanka and father Andrij Chuj from Donetsk. According to the metropolitan, the priests refused to cooperate with the Russians, which is why they were arrested in the fall of 2023 and accused of pro-Ukrainian activities.
Deportation to Georgia is also described in the report of the UN Human Rights Mission. According to this report, from late 2023 to early 2024, the occupying authorities detained and brought at least four people to the border between the Russian Federation and Georgia.
"They were detained because they expressed pro-Ukrainian views in private conversations, publicly sang Ukrainian songs and wore Ukrainian-style clothes," the report states.
At the same time, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia did not respond to DW's inquiry as to whether that institution has information on cases of deportation of Ukrainians from the occupied territories to their country, as well as whether there is an agreement between Georgia and the Russian Federation or Ukraine in this regard. DW asked the Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine about agreements with third countries. There they replied that they could not provide the information, because it "belongs to the category "for official use".

Responsible for deportation

In addition, the deportation of Ukrainians from the occupied territories to another country - Latvia - is publicly known. This is stated in the press release of the Regional Prosecutor's Office in Zaporizhia in connection with the indictment against two citizens of the Russian Federation - the head of the occupying "Main Administration of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Zaporizhia Region" and the "Migration Department of the Russian Federation".
"According to their decision, the resident of Pologiv was unjustifiably detained and illegally imprisoned. After that, he was forcibly transported to the border station of Latvia and ordered to walk towards the border," the prosecution said.
However, the Prosecutor's Office could not state the number of open cases against Russians and Ukrainians involved in the deportation of residents of the occupied territories.
"The current data obtained during the investigation are not final. The true number of deported, forcibly resettled citizens of Ukraine can be determined after the end of hostilities," the institution added.
The occupying authorities continue to deport Ukrainians from the occupied territories, notes the UN Human Rights Mission.
"On April 16, 2024, the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation in the Zaporozhye region reported that a woman from Melitopol will be "deported" and banned from entering the Russian Federation for 20 years for allegedly trying to gather information on the movements of Russian forces," it states. in the report of human rights activists.
On April 10, a court set up by Russia in Mariupol decided to deport a Ukrainian citizen for allegedly distributing Islamist literature from the list of banned extremist publications of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation.
At the same time, the Russian Federation extended the period of stay in the occupied territories for Ukrainians without a Russian passport until December 31. So, the next wave of deportations can start already next year.