DISINFO: Ukrainian armed forces keep Russian civilians in concentration camps
SUMMARY
Ukrainian troops in Russia’s Kursk Region have rounded up local civilians and placed them in something like concentration camps. When Ukrainian forces launched an incursion into Kursk Region last month, some civilians, including elderly people and those with disabilities, were unable to leave, and their settlements fell under Ukrainian control. Those left behind were subjected to detention methods synonymous with World War II. Of those detained, between 70 and 100 were taken to a school in Sudzha, where some of the fiercest fighting took place. Once there, they were subjected to psychological abuse and presented to foreign journalists.
RESPONSE
No evidence is provided to support the claim, which as been denounced as a fake by Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation at the National Security and Defense 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.
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.
Accusing Ukraine of war crimes, atrocities and illicit actions without proof or through faked testimonies has been a regular practice by Russian authorities and pro-Kremlin and other Russian state-controlled outlets throughout the war. These allegations are part of a strategy to discredit 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.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that Ukraine was responsible for mass murder of Ukrainian POW`s in Olenivka in 2022, that Ukrainian armed forces shoot their own soldiers if they try to retreat, that Ukrainians behave like terrorist militants, kidnap civilians in Kursk, or that Ukrainians shoot Russian POWs while corrupt Western media say otherwise.