Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova’s comment on accusations of Russia taking “cruel filtration measures” against Ukrainian citizens

Übernommen von: Pressemitteilungen – Botschaft der Russischen Föderation

On September 7 of this year, the UN Security Council held a regular session at the request of the United States and Albania. The Westerners tried to use it to accuse Russia of “filtration measures” to compel Ukrainian citizens to leave their homes for Russia, resorting to deception and force in the process. During the session, Russia’s Ambassador to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya described the real situation in detail. We would like to draw attention to this issue once again.

The Russian Federation has received the biggest number of Ukrainian refugees from Ukraine, the DPR and the LPR on its territory – almost 4 million people, including over 625,000 children. In the UNHCR’s estimate, 2.4 million are Ukrainian citizens. They live freely and voluntarily on Russian territory. Nobody prohibits them from moving or leaving the country, which is confirmed by the OHCHR.

Individual work is conducted with all refugees. They receive prompt assistance in resolving various urgent problems linked with further accommodation, food, basic necessities and social payments.

Preschool children are provided with places in kindergartens and schoolchildren are admitted to secondary general education and vocational schools. Many of them receive targeted humanitarian and medical aid, including psychological rehabilitation. Its goal is to help children forget all the horrors they were exposed to in the previous eight years when Kiev was methodically and with impunity destroying the civilian population of Donbass.

As you see, this approach is in stark contrast with the actions of the nationalists in Kiev, who are publishing personal data of adults and minors on the Myrotvorets website, threatening them with reprisal. We have already informed the UN through UNICEF that over 340 children are blacklisted on this extremist resource. However, UN officials are determined to ignore these flagrant violations.

Obviously, such a huge number of people fleeing to Russia did so of their own free will. There is evidence to prove this. Many of them describe their impressions and thoughts on social media, thank our country and freely admit that they fled from Ukraine out of fear for their lives. They wanted to escape from the criminal regime that did not let them evacuate and used them as a “human shield.” This regime has continued to employ terrorist methods that show no concern for the supreme value – human life.

Here are some dry statistics to make the picture complete. There are over 9,500 temporary accommodation centres for more than 95,000 people in 85 Russian regions. Refugees are brought to these places by trains – 38 trains are involved in this. A telephone hotline processes over 250 calls per day. Refugees and displaced persons receive financial, legal, psychological and medical aid. UNHCR representatives daily visit them in these centres.

Naturally, displaced persons go through registration at the border with Russia, after which those who need are helped to get to stationary temporary accommodation facilities. We would like to emphasise something for those who are mixing up their definitions. Ukrainians and residents of the DPR and the LPR undergo registration, not filtration. This is normal global practice. These procedures are used in Poland and other EU countries as regards refugees from Ukraine, as well as the Middle East and North Africa.

Even the Western media can no longer ignore the fact that a huge number of Ukrainian citizens are striving to get to the Russian-liberated territory. There is a long queue at the Zaporozhye border checkpoint. Up to 700 people pass through it every day. Having heard from their friends and relatives how peaceful things are in their native cities and villages, they return home. IAEA experts had an opportunity to see this for themselves. On their way to the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, they passed by this queue and talked to people staying in it. This is a graphic example showing how many Ukrainians prefer to live in Russia now. They do not trust the corrupt and criminal Kiev regime.

Quelle: Pressemitteilungen – Botschaft der Russischen Föderation