How Many Ukrainian Refugees Ended Up in Russia Since the Emergence of War and Why?

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Reading Time: 2 minutes

265
VIEWS

On August 17th, Ermile Nemsadze, one of the founders of the far-right “Georgian March,” noted that after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, around 4 million Ukrainians moved to Russia as refugees, which, can be used as proof to argue that the current conflict does not have ethnic roots and Ukrainians do not consider Russia as a country that wants to eradicate them.

The claim that Ukrainians do not consider Russia an enemy based on the number of Ukrainian refugees in Russia is manipulative, as a large number of Ukrainians came to Russia by force or as a result of the lack of other alternatives. At the same time, the given number is inaccurate, and in fact, about 2 million Ukrainian citizens have moved to Russia due to the conflict.

After the emergence of the war in Ukraine, both the Ukrainian and Russian sides, as well as international statistics companies and the UN Refugee Agency, regularly disseminate information on the refugees who came to Russia from Ukraine. There are slight differences in numbers, but all of them point out that after the war, about 2 million Ukrainian citizens came to Russia.

The Ukrainian government has repeatedly accused Russia of forcibly relocating Ukrainian people to Russia. According to the Ukrainian side, the majority of refugees (about 1.6 million people) ended up in Russia in this way. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken also commented on this fact, arguing that according to the information obtained by various US sources, the number of Ukrainians detained and forcibly transferred to Russia ranges from 900 thousand to 1.6 million, among whom 260 thousand are children. He noted that the so-called “filtration” camps, Ukrainian family members are separated, tortured, documents confiscated, and exiled to Russian territories, including the Far East.

The OSCE report states that approximately 1.3 million Ukrainians were forcibly deported to Russia. In addition, the Radio Liberty story discusses the facts that orphaned children are brought to Russia, adopted by Russian families and given Russian citizenship. The adoption of thousands of children taken from Mariupol is confirmed by the Russian agencies themselves.

Reputable international agency Associated Press conducted a journalistic investigation on the mentioned issue. The agency mainly spoke to Ukrainians who emigrated from Mariupol to Russia, some of whom are still in Russia, and some of whom have moved to European countries. The article of the Associated Press revealed that the Russian soldiers are giving an ultimatum to the Ukrainian people: “Die in Ukraine or live in Russia.” Often, as a result of the “filtration” process, Ukrainians are deprived of their passports and offered Russian citizenship instead; sometimes, they are forced to sign documents condemning the Ukrainian government and the actions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Notably, due to the lack of money and documents, not everyone is able to escape from Russia, and a large part of the refugees are sent to distant parts of the Russian Federation.


The article has been written in the framework of Facebook’s fact-checking program. You can read more about the restrictions that Facebook may impose based on this article via this link. You can find information about appealing or editing our assessment via this link.

Read detailed instructions for editing the article.
Read detailed appeal instructions.

Topic: Politics
Violation: Manipulation
Country: Russia, Ukraine
Source

Source

Untitled-1
About Ermile Nemsadze

Last News

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Add New Playlist