Russia to build concentration camps in occupied territories

Russia plans to build concentration camps in temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, the National Resistance Center (NRC) reported.

“As the Ukrainian underground has learned, the occupation administrations have received the first verbal instructions on the implementation of the “special infrastructure project”. This is how Russians disguised the creation and development of concentration camps for the disloyal population,” the statement said.

This summer, the occupiers completed the first stage of proposals for the construction of new and renovation of existing ‘centers for the temporary detention of foreign citizens and stateless persons.’

“These centers were created with the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the TOT [Temporarily Occupied Territories] of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia regions. Initially, Russians placed people who had not passed the “filtration measures”. After a series of pseudo-electoral processes, they were renamed and used to “re-educate” people who did not want to receive a Russian passport,” the NRC wrote.

The Kremlin has set a deadline for obtaining Russian passports by December 31 this year. Analysts predict that starting in January, the occupiers will intensify pressure on citizens who have not received a Russian passport or have not obtained residence permits or refugee status.

“People without Russian passports were placed in these centers by the occupation police through “administrative detention” and by local court decisions. The occupation authorities also obliged employers to report such citizens,” the text states.

Officially, Russians claim that for citizens disloyal to the Kremlin, they will apply the procedure of ‘administrative expulsion’ (deportation) beyond the occupied territories. However, the occupiers blocked the only humanitarian corridor in the region through the checkpoint Vasylivka back in December 2022. Camera footage of ‘expulsions’ turned out to be purely propaganda materials.

“According to information from the Ukrainian underground, after such stories, people were again placed in these so-called “temporary detention centers for foreign citizens and stateless persons,” where they were subjected to labor exploitation,” the NRC reported.