Russian Church helps the invaders forcibly export Ukrainians to the Russian Federation - Slidstvo.Info

This is stated in the investigation by Slidstvo.Info.

Before crossing the Russian border with Ukrainians, so-called "filtration" conversations are conducted, that is, interrogations. Then they seize the documents and phones — the further fate of seized things is mostly unknown.

"Slidstvo.Info " found out that one of the key roles in the deportation and resettlement of Ukrainians is occupied by the Russian Orthodox Church. The Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia shares the information about deportees with churchmen, and they resettle them in churches and monasteries in a centralized manner. Journalists have identified the location of church institutions where forcibly removed Ukrainians may be located.

From the very beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations has been sending reports on the occupied territories and deported Ukrainians to the email address of the Synodal Charity Department of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC).

The Ministry of Emergency Situations informs churchmen daily about changes in the occupied territories and, even more interestingly, about the number of forcibly removed Ukrainians — routes and times of arrival of people from Ukraine to Russia.

Slidstvo.Info found out this after reading the emails of Patriarch Kirill of the Russian Orthodox Church, which were shared with them by hackers from Anonymus and the DDoSecrets project.

The email address from which the emails were sent is [email protected] - it seems that it was created specifically for contacts between Russian churchmen and security forces in matters related to the war in Ukraine.

Since the first day of the war, the Russian Emergencies Ministry has been sending daily information about the resettlement of Ukrainians from the "DPR" and "LPR" across Russia and the schedule of trains and buses used to arrive exported Ukrainians to a specially created email address. In addition to each letter, the church receives a map of the occupied territory of Ukraine with all changes in the course of military operations.

Reports to Russian churchmen of the Ministry of Emergency indicate that the information concerns the "LPR" and "DPR" and other Ukrainian citizens arriving in the Russian Federation.

The number of Ukrainians deported to Russia is growing every day. During the entire period of deportation, almost 490 thousand people arrived in Russia, including 100 thousand children. Ukrainian Ombudsman Lyudmila Denisova reported the same number of Ukrainians forcibly taken to Russia.

In early March, Bishop Panteleimon and the director of the Department of Civil Defense and population protection of the EMERCOM of Russia, Lieutenant-General Oleg Manuylo, discussed cooperation between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia. The church's website states that the parties "discussed the possibility of arranging humanitarian assistance to refugees and affected civilians and cooperation between the church and the Ministry of Emergency Situations."

Russian propaganda explains the mass resettlement of Ukrainians from the eastern regions by their own desire to be in Russia. Numerous testimonies of people who, in particular, managed to escape from Mariupol confirm that citizens are being taken to Russia forcibly.

"We have testimonies of people who are forcibly taken out of filtration camps in Taganrog or Saransk. Forced deportation has signs of genocide," Ombudsman Lyudmila Denisova stated in an interview with "Livyy Bereh". The forcible transfer of children and other groups to territory waging an armed conflict is also a sign of genocide."

Denisova also announced the figure of 600 thousand Ukrainians forcibly taken to Russia and said that she had requested lists of our citizens from the Russians but did not receive a response.

Geneva Convention forbids the forced individual or mass resettlement or deportation of protected persons from the occupied territory to the territory of the occupying state. That is, the mass forced deportations of Ukrainians to Russia should also be considered in international courts.

The correspondence shared by the Anonymus group and the DDoSecrets project and from open sources evidence that almost every region where Ukrainians are brought has its own diocese that deals with displaced persons. They bring them food and conduct "spiritual conversations."

According to the official website of the Moscow Patriarchate, 52 dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church assist the deported Ukrainians.

The official website of the Russian Orthodox Church reports eight destinations for the settlement of Ukrainians on the territory of church bodies of the Russian Orthodox Church. "Until April 21 in Russia, refugees had been placed in a church shelter in the village of Manichskaya, a shelter in Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, a shelter in the Voronezh diocese, the Iveron Convent of the Diocese of Rostov, the Assumption Monastery of the Diocese of Tver. Also, with the support of the Church, refugees are placed in Novocherkassk of the Diocese of Rostov. A family of refugees was accepted by the Kovalevsky orphanage in the Kostroma diocese," the website reports. "Slidstvo.Info " collected information about 11 such establishments.

The destiny of people in these shelters and monasteries is unknown. The Russian Orthodox Church hides the ways of transporting Ukrainians to its church institutions, the conditions of their detention, and even more so, information about surveillance cameras for forcibly removed people.

At the same time, Russian churchmen launched a whole information campaign to spread information about their charity.