»Russische Streikräfte haben in Mariupol rechtswidrige Deportationen von Zivilist*innen durchgeführt«

After Russia’s occupation of Mariupol, in many cases Russian or Russian-controlled forces prevented civilians from fleeing toward Ukrainian government-held areas. Sometimes, civilians said Russian forces explicitly refused to let them flee westward or physically escorted them to “evacuation” buses that then took them to the self-proclaimed DNR. In other instances, Russian forces offered transport only to the DNR or to Russia, leaving those without personal transport no choice; in still other cases, Russian soldiers discouraged civilians from fleeing in the direction of Ukrainian-held territory, warning them of the dangers of crossing the front line.

Taken together, these conditions created what was effectively a coercive environment in which many civilians described feeling forced by Russian and Russian-controlled forces to flee in one direction: toward the self-proclaimed DNR, from where they were almost invariably transferred to Russia. (...)

Amnesty International also documented several cases in which unaccompanied children, older people and people with disabilities were forcibly transferred from Mariupol to Donetsk. In some cases, children, people with disabilities and older people who had already reached areas of relative safety and were planning to travel on to Ukrainian government-controlled areas were sought out and rerouted to Russian-occupied areas of Donetsk by Russian-controlled authorities of the self-proclaimed DNR.

For example, on 23 March, staff began evacuating the 92 residents of the Institution for Older People and People with Disabilities No. 2 from Mariupol. They had reached a youth camp in Yur’ivka, a village on the western outskirts of the city that was under Russian occupation but where there was no active bombardment. The plan was to organize their further evacuation to Ukrainian government-controlled Zaporizhzhia. However, on 25 and 27 March Russian-controlled officials from the DNR arrived at the youth camp and ordered residents to board a bus, as a staff member of the institution told Amnesty International: “They said they were taking people to Donetsk. They didn’t explain anything to residents... They took their passports.” According to Ukrainian officials, the residents of the institution are still in Donetsk, as are all residents of another institution in Mariupol.

Collectively, these testimonies underscore that in Mariupol, Russian and Russian-controlled forces carried out unlawful deportations or transfers of civilians. While Russian and Russian-controlled forces did not block escape routes to Ukrainian-government controlled areas in all cases, in many cases Russian forces told civilians they could not flee to Ukrainian government-held areas, or their transfers were forced, as defined by international law, through the threat of coercion. After Russia occupied the city, people who had lived under bombardment for weeks often had no choice but to flee to other Russian-occupied areas, especially the self-proclaimed DNR, in some cases with the physical escort of Russian or Russian-controlled troops. Many civilians were then transferred to Russia, even when their preference was to return to Ukrainian government-controlled areas.

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