DISINFO: There is ample evidence of the creation of concentration camps in the Kursk region
SUMMARY
Russian law enforcement agencies continue to receive information about cases of forced removal <...> to Ukraine of residents of the Kursk region who failed to evacuate. This, by the way, is a typical practice of the Nazi occupiers. There is much evidence of the creation of something like concentration camps, where Ukrainian fighters, at gunpoint, place residents who, for various reasons, were unable to leave unsafe areas.
RESPONSE
Recurring disinformation narrative from pro-Kremlin outlets accusing Ukraine of crimes against humanity. No evidence is provided to support the claim, it has been denounced as a fake by Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defence Council.
There is nothing to prove the existence of concentration camps or similar facilities for the civilian population or prisoners of war (PoW) after Ukraine’s advance into a wide area in Russia’s Kursk Oblast, and the opposite, correct treatment of Russian prisoners by Ukrainian authorities, has been reported by international media. These allegations are part of a strategy to demonise Ukraine and deflect attention from Russia's military aggression and human rights violations committed by Russia in Ukraine. Russia has set up filtration camps with brutal treatment in many instances.
The Washington Post quoted Russian civilians as saying that “they were being treated well and did not know of any residents who had been killed”. Ukraine has set up storage facilities in its northern region of Sumy to hold and send humanitarian aid to Russian civilians in the Kyiv-held part of Russia's western region of Kursk, the interior minister said on Friday.
In August 2024, Ukraine established a hotline for Russians in Kursk Oblast to request aid or evacuation. This disinformation claim could be a reaction to this event, as an attempt to prevent Russian civilians from fleeing. It could also be a strategy to portray testimonies by Kursk citizens as forced by Ukrainian authorities, as it appeared after several Russian civilians talked to international journalists in Kursk and offered negative images and statements about the Russian authorities.
Ukraine invited the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to visit territory it has captured in its six-week-old military incursion into Russia's Kursk region to demonstrate its adherence to humanitarian law.
Read similar disinformation cases: Ukraine builds concentration camps in Kursk; Ukrainian fascists kill civilians at point-blank range in Kursk, use orphans as human shields; Ukrainian commanders are forcing soldiers to kill civilians in the Kursk region; Ukrainians behave like terrorist militants, kidnap civilians in Kursk; Ukrainian soldiers brand Russian POWs with an iron trident.