Kidnapping is one of the cruel crimes of this war. According to the Human Rights Commissioner of the Ukrainian parliament, Ludmila Denisova (61), almost 1.2 million Ukrainians, including around 200,000 children, were deported to the Russian Federation. She said this in an interview with Blick last week: “He (Putin) is using them for propaganda. He claims they had to flee Ukraine and he had to protect them. But the world saw it and knew it wasn’t true.
Various other reports also confirm the Russian approach. Therefore, for example, Russia is opening evacuation corridors in the attacked cities for civilians. But they only go in one direction: east. In other cases, Ukrainians are forcibly deported to Russia.
“Russia hopes to forget where their home is”
It is not known what happens to people next. They may be sentenced to forced labor. It is also possible that many of them will never see their homeland again.
The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky (44), has recently sharply criticized the actions of Putin and his soldiers: “Among other things, they will deport children – in the hope that they will forget where they come from, where their home is.”
Ideologies are tested
The horror of deportation has been pervasive since World War II. In those days, millions of Jews were put on trains and transported to concentration camps, from which they never returned. But Putin may have had another role model that he fought against Nazi Germany at the time: Joseph Stalin (1878-1953).
“The paranoia that Stalin had because he saw everyone as Nazi collaborators is now being reborn,” political scientist Andreas Heinemann-Grüder, 64, told Focus. Heinemann-Grüder refers to the so-called filter bearings. In these camps, Ukrainians in Russian-controlled areas would be examined. For example by searching their cell phones. In this way, the Russians would like to track down suspected Ukrainian Nazis and employees of security agencies or officers. Those who represent Russian ideologies receive permits and can stay in the region. Anyone who fails the exam in the eyes of the Russian FSB special services would be taken far from the border. “And often no one knows where to go,” says Heinemann-Grüder.
Lyudmila Denisova also mentioned this approach to Blick and this is confirmed by further research.
“It’s about destroying Ukrainian identity”
Jan Claas Behrends (52), professor of history of Eastern Europe at the Center for Contemporary History Leibniz in Potsdam, told Focus that Russia was pursuing a clear deportation goal: “It is about destroying the culture and identity of the Ukrainians.” »He also cites Stalin as a role model for Putin.
In the 1930s and 1950s, the Soviet dictator deported anyone who opposed his policies – to get rid of critics and strengthen his power.
Deportations for religious reasons also took place in Switzerland until the 18th century. Here the Mennonites were arrested and expelled, especially in the Canton of Bern, with the help of state Anabaptist chambers and Anabaptist hunters, in an effort to free their own territory from Anabaptists. (with)