A 17-year-old teen recalls the terrifying experience inside a Russian filtration camp, saying she will never forget the conversation she overheard there. Maria Vdovychenko and her family were among the 30,000 Ukrainians who have so far been unable to undergo filtration at these camps.
Vdovychenko and her family fled the siege of Mariupol when they arrived in the camp. A report by Radio Free Europe said that the teen's family waited two days and nights in their car to leave Mariupol, a strategic port city that came under heavy bombardment from Russian troops.
There was a column of hundreds of cars, said Vdovychenko, who spoke to the news agency. Your legs are swollen. Vdovychenko added that a filtration camp is different from a filtration settlement, saying her mother and her 12 year-old sister were spared the process, though Russians said they would filter all above 14 years. Vdovychenko said that she was terrified to find herself alone in a room with five armed men despite steeling herself for a very difficult ordeal. She was fingerprinted, her documents scanned, and her phone scoured for signs of disloyalty to the Russians. One of the soldiers there began talking about rape when it seemed like it was all over.
My legs started to tremble when a soldier lying on a mattress said : 'Don't you like her? There will be more women later. They didn't like me, and they just kicked me out, the traumatized teen told Current Time.
She remembers the shocking conversations the soldiers had with each other. What did you do with people who didn't pass the filtration? One of the soldiers asked. According to Vdovychenko, Shot 10 was shot and stopped counting, but her father was not that lucky, even though she was spared physical assault. According to Vdovychenko, she wasn't allowed to wait for her father, who was bullied and beaten. It's not only about the government, but about Ukraine and the whole situation. She said something.
The girl said her father had no clue how the interview ended, as he fell unconscious soon after receiving a blow to his head. He regained consciousness on the pavement outside. The family flees to Zaporizhzhia via Berdyansk and is currently in Ukrainian-controlled land.
Reports emerge regarding the filtration camps and screenings carried out by Russian troops, which vet civilians. Those who fail to apply for a screening camp are allegedly killed or forcibly deported to Siberia and other Russian destinations. Ukraine has claimed that an estimated 40,000 residents from Mariupol were moved to a Russian-held territory without any coordination with the Ukrainian government.