“The camp, to which the Russian military took both Ukrainian military personnel and civilians – in particular, children – operated at least from March to May 2022”, — write: www.radiosvoboda.org
According to human rights defenders, interrogations, beatings, threats and other abuse of prisoners in the filtration camp in Narovla can be qualified as an international criminal offense. As well as the actions of the authorities of Belarus, which allowed the Russian army to place such a detention center on the territory of a sovereign state. Oleksandr Lukashenko did not answer journalists’ questions about the filtration camp on the territory of Belarus.
Journalists managed to establish the exact location of the filtration camp in Narovla thanks to the analysis of satellite images of that period, Russian videos of prisoners, testimonies of former prisoners and data obtained from hackers.
The point where Ukrainian military and civilian prisoners were held was located on the site of the Belarusian state enterprise Pripyat Alliance, which is part of the structure of the Republican Union of Consumer Societies of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Belarus.
Former prisoners interviewed by journalists recalled that the place of their imprisonment was a building similar to a “kolkhoz”, an agricultural enterprise.
Analysis of several videos shown on Russian television and published by the Russian military itself confirmed the presence of military equipment on the territory and helped to identify elements of the camp – for example, a building with a dilapidated roof, tents and KamAZ vehicles with the letters V.
According to Planet Labs satellite images, the Russian military was there at least until early May 2022. When the Armed Forces of Ukraine de-occupied the Kyiv region, apparently, the routes of transportation of prisoners changed, the investigation says.
Journalists asked the Pripyat Alliance company for a comment. The director of the enterprise, Zinaida Myrutenko, refused to answer questions and advised to contact the executive committee of the city of Narovlya. Chairman of the Narovlyan Executive Committee, Volodymyr Antonenko, aka former military officer from the security service of Oleksandr Lukashenko, heard that the journalist of the “Belarusian Investigative Center” was calling, said that she was “wrong” and hung up.
The investigation also publishes for the first time the unique footage obtained by Radio Liberty journalists – a video from a Russian military action camera found in Kyiv region. The video, taken on the morning of February 24, 2022, shows how a convoy of Russian troops from Belarus enters the territory of Ukraine, in the Chornobyl area.
Later, footage of captured Ukrainian military personnel in the Kyiv region was caught on camera by the Russian military.
Subsequently, these soldiers, among other prisoners, could be seen on the territory of the Belarusian “Pripyat Alliance” in Narovla in a propaganda story of NTV.
After the full-scale invasion, Ukrainian human rights defenders and journalists began to receive numerous testimonies that the Russian army had organized a filtration camp in the territory of the city of Narovlya in Belarus, where captured Ukrainians – both civilians and military – were taken. Some human rights defenders call this camp one of the most cruel in the treatment of prisoners. As the former prisoners and their relatives told, with whom the journalists talked, the prisoners were brutally interrogated and beaten.
According to the assessment of the lawyers of the Ukrainian-American project The Reckoning Project, the actions of the Russian military, which took the civilian population to Narovlya, including minors, may be considered a violation of the norms of the Geneva Convention. According to lawyers, the actions of the authorities of Belarus can also be qualified as an international crime. After all, she allowed the Russian army to place a filtration point on the territory of the sovereign state.
Yulia Polekhina, a lawyer from the NGO “Human Rights Protection Group Sich”, says: “Is Lukashenka responsible for this? I’m sure it is. These filtration camps cannot be established without the consent of authorized government officials. And when people are beaten, tortured, not provided with medical care, this is a war crime. And this cannot happen without the consent of the authorities.”
Oleksandr Lukashenko himself says in an interview that the Russian troops were on the territory of Belarus “for exercises”, but later a part of the Russian army was “provoked” and therefore they “returned to Kyiv”.
Journalists sent a question to Lukashenka’s spokeswoman about whether he gave permission to set up a camp for the detention and torture of Ukrainians on the territory of Belarus, or whether Vladimir Putin at his own discretion set up such a facility on the territory of a sovereign state, according to the constitution of Belarus. At the time of publication of the material, no response was received.
“Will these facts about the role of the authorities of Belarus and Oleksandr Lukashenko in the war against Ukraine become the subject of the study of the international criminal justice system?” – journalists ask in the investigation.
According to human rights defenders, currently some of the Ukrainians who passed through the filtration camp on the territory of the Pripyat Alliance state enterprise in Narovla are still in captivity, in particular, in the territory of penal colonies in Russia.