Majority of Ukrainian Refugees Flee… to Russia
Ukrainian POWs beg not to be sent home
It may come as a shock, to those who follow mainstream news in the west, to learn that the majority of Ukrainians are fleeing to Russia. And on top of that, many Ukrainian prisoners of war do not want to be returned to their home country.
It’s shocking to the masses who rely on corporate-run junk news. Yet that is exactly what is happening, and the United Nations has even provided the numbers to prove it. The UNHCR, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, this month released fresh data about the movements of refugees across Europe. The study revealed that almost a third of the nearly six and a half million Ukrainians who have fled their homeland, crossed into Russia. That’s more refugees than have fled to Poland.
The number of Ukrainian refugees who have crossed into the Russian Federation is just under 2 million total. Neighboring Poland has taken in the second-largest number, about 1.2 million so far. As has been widely reported, the majority of the refugees are women and children, likely because Ukraine detains most of its male citizens and conscripts them to fight against Russian Federation forces.
Here is a breakdown of the top five countries accepting refugees from Ukraine:
Russian Federation — 1,968,127 refugees
Poland — 1,256,568
Germany — 915,000
Czech Republic — 400,559
Italy — 157,309
And that isn’t including the more than 100,000 citizens of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics who were evacuated to Russia in February, around the time when Russia began its intervention.
How do the refugees get out? Well, if they flee west, they may have to pay exorbitant amounts of money. Rambler, a Russian news outlet, reported in late July that many Ukrainian residents are fleeing to the Zaporozhia and Kherson regions in southeastern Ukraine, which is now mostly under Russian control. The system for their evacuation is known as the “Zaporozhian wicket” or “Zaporozhian gate.”
In the months immediately following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, there was no real regulation pertaining to fleeing refugees. But by June a new procedure was introduced. Movement takes place in columns which form in the location of the Zaporozhia car market. Usually there are three or four columns per day, with up to 50 cars in each. Only citizens of Ukraine can leave this way, not the foreigners who came to fight alongside them. Citizens have to apply to the Zaporozhian regional military administration for permission to depart, and after that, they can either drive their own car or pay as much as $500 to hitch a ride with someone in one of the columns.
Why leave Ukraine this way?
Well, aside from the obvious desire to escape the war, many are fleeing to avoid conscription into Ukraine’s military forces. There is an unofficial price tag if they want to flee to the west, across the border to Moldova. For men between 18 and 60, that price is $5,000 and up, and even then, there are no guarantees. A certificate of “unsuitability for military service” reportedly costs upwards of $1,000 to $2,000. But the certificates are not enough. A doctor’s certificate is also required, which can cost as much as $10,000.
So, many Ukrainians flee to Russia in order to avoid this “exit tax” imposed on them in the western part of the country. From Zaporozhe, they cross into Russian Crimea, and from there they can choose to remain in Russia, or cross over into Georgia and from there, into the European Union.
Many others leave for the simple reason that their eyes have been opened to the bleak future awaiting them in Ukraine if they stay. They often choose to remain in Russia even if they are free to continue on to the EU. And some have family in Russia awaiting them.
Of course, mainstream western media often claims that the refugees going to Russia were “forced” to go there or had no other option, which in some cases is true. But that does not explain why so many Ukrainian POWs are begging their captors not to send them back home.
On August 13, a Russian news network ran a video featuring several POWs who shared their fears about Ukraine and described their treatment at the hands of their captors and former comrades. Since Russian media is blocked in many western countries, I’ve translated the story into English and posted it on my YouTube channel for viewing.
“They are not human,” Ukrainian POW Dmitry Laminoga tells the reporter, “because the way they treat civilians, the way they deal with them… That’s not how people treat each other. It’s just… beastly.”
The reporter, Peter Deryagin, says that Dimitry laid down his arms after what he saw his former comrades do in Mariupol.
Dmitry recalls how Azov battalion and other nationalist militias set up their firing points on the roofs of residential buildings, even inside people’s apartments, using civilians as shields. And regular army units of Ukraine fair little better, used as cannon fodder by militants like Azov.
At Azovstal, the steelworks factory where Ukrainian fighters were holed up by the hundreds in April and May, comrades became more like prison wardens, or even executioners.
“They threw me into Azovstal, and I escaped from there,” says Nikita Tsarevich. “Azov simply did not give the go-ahead for anyone to leave. In general, the brigade chief of staff gave instructions to Azov… well… to waste us if we escaped.”
Now, many Ukrainian prisoners of war — regular troops from the marines, national guard, airborne assault troops and ground forces — have refused to be exchanged. They don’t want to go back to Ukraine where they were abandoned and betrayed and may still await execution for “desertion.”
“Azov people shot fighters of the National Guard of Ukraine for wanting to lay down arms at Azovstal,” Alexander Zhizhin says. “An Azov shot a civilian just because he asked a question three times. I don’t want to go back to the exchange, to Ukraine. I don’t want to go back. I don’t see a future for this country there, after what I learned, in general how… well, what was going on, what the state and the officers, well… what they did to people.”
Stories have circulated about how deserters will be shot, and talk of surrender is reportedly not tolerated. They are expected to fight until the bitter end.
“There’s no point in surrendering,” Alexander continues, “You will be killed right away. We were just deceived, you know… They gave us information that wasn’t true.”
Alexander says he has been treated well by the Russians, contrary to what he was told would happen if he was captured: “It’s very good here, well… respectful.” He says he was not beaten or tortured and that’s why he knows he was lied to. “I was turned against the Russians. It was good that I decided to surrender, so I am grateful to them.”
Vitaly Derevyankin brought his wife and her parents with him to Crimea, where he surrendered in early May. He too, says he has been treated well by his captors. “Great treatment, three meals a day. Church visits, walks,” but he is not so happy about the regime back home. “I have a negative attitude toward the Ukrainian government. People have forgotten against whom their grandfathers, fathers and grandmothers fought…and don’t understand who they are pointing weapons against… And I advise them to point them in the opposite direction.”
Vitaly is referring to those whose relatives fought against the Nazis. But there are also many Ukrainians whose family fought on the other side, as collaborators with the German Wehrmacht. And Ukrainian nationalists, who idolize Nazis like Stepan Bandera, are willing to sacrifice their own, just as Hitler did, in the end.
There is a plethora of other reasons why many no longer wish to live in Ukraine and seek refuge in Russia. I have reported on many of these things, from the way little children are indoctrinated at paramilitary camps, to the textbooks they read at school which teach them to hate other Ukrainians who speak Russian, even their own families. Many people simply don’t want to raise their families this way.
Since Russian was the common language of the Soviet Union, many in Ukraine — especially the older generation — still speak it. And just one Russian word, spoken at the wrong time, within hearing of the wrong people, could lead to brutal beatings or death.
Then there is the adulation of Nazis like Bandera and Roman Shukhevich, both well-documented mass murderers in the Second World War, the “Great Patriotic War,” as it is known in Russia and many former Soviet nations. Or the state-approved Nazi militias like Azov, Pravyj Sektor (“Right Sector”) and Svoboda (“Freedom”), now infamous for the brutality they inflict on anyone even suspected of having loyalties to Russia or the former USSR.
Even marching in the “Eternal Regiment,” an annual march held in many parts of the world, for allied veterans of World War Two and their descendants, is considered a traitorous act in Ukraine.
But I have barely scraped the tip of the iceberg. The roots of this profound evil are so deep, so horrific, so unspeakable, that not even the thousands of journalists now covering the war from eastern Ukraine have been able to uncover all of it yet.
A tribunal, to be held in the near future in Mariupol, will expose many of the fascists’ terrorist actions and assorted atrocities. Western governments and the shadowy entities who prop up the current power structure, will of course do all they can to block news of this tribunal. But they cannot block everyone who reports on it.
One day, hopefully soon, the truth about Ukraine will be known to the world.
With special thanks to Faina Savenkova, Elena Flippova and Dmitry Velyakin for their help with translation.
About the author:
Deborah Armstrong currently writes about geopolitics with an emphasis on Russia. She previously worked in local TV news in the United States where she won two regional Emmy Awards. In the early 1990’s, Deborah lived in the Soviet Union during its final days and worked as a television consultant at Leningrad Television.
