Thousands of Ukrainians have been deported to Russia. Several of them have ended up in Siberia, on the border with North Korea. – They had no choice, says the pastor Grigory Mikhnov-Vaytenko.
Updated less than 20 minutes ago
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After weeks of bombing and artillery protection could thousands of Ukrainians who were still left in the city of Mariupol at last evacuated to safety. The Russians announced in late April that they had taken control of the strategically important port city located on the Sea of Azov in the breakaway province of Donetsk in southeastern Ukraine.
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But those who were to be evacuated should not have been allowed to enter the parts of Ukraine that are still under the Kyiv government.
Instead, they were sent into enemy territory.
–– Many of them have told me that they preferred to travel to Ukrainian territory, but did not get the opportunity. They could travel to Russian territory, or they could stay in Mariupol. And in the city it was too dangerous to stay, says the Russian priest and human rights activist Grigory Mikhnov-Vaytenko to VG.
Instead, many busloads of Ukrainians were driven from Mariupol and across the border into Russia. The same thing must have happened in Kharkiv.
Released from the Russians: This is how they were saved
– It was not the case that they got a gun to the temple and were taken into an evacuation bus, but it was not a voluntary evacuation either. They had no choice, the priest elaborates.
And on the Russian side of the border, where waited Mikhnov-Vaytenko and the voluntary apparatus he has put in place to assist Ukrainian refugees coming to Russia.
–The priest is a vocal critic of Putin, and left the Russian Orthodox Church eight years ago, in protest of Russia’s annexation of the Crimean peninsula. Mikhnov-Vaytenko is now the Archbishop of the Baltic Apostolic Orthodox Church. In addition, he is the leader of the monitoring group of the Human Rights Council in St. Petersburg.
Here they are sent
The Ukrainian refugees were first taken by bus to the Russian cities of Taganrov and Rostov-on-Don, a few hours’ drive east of Mariupol. They were then transported in their own evacuation trains to various places in Russia, according to the refugees’ own accounts.
– Several have been sent to the area around the city of Vladivostok far east, and others to northern parts of Siberia. Just look at the map – the whole of Russia is involved in this, says Mikhnov-Vaytenko to VG.
– These camps are far away from civilization. There are good places to rest, but not good places to live, work or have the prospect of anything, says the Russian priest.
– How are the conditions in these camps?
– This is clay from the Soviet era that was used by the unions for people to rest. The standard is quite elementary.
– Do you think the Kremlin is trying to populate pig-ridden areas of the country with this?
– No, I do not think so, they do not care about what happens to these Ukrainians, Mikhnov-Vaytenko answers.
–Further from Vladivostok, 300 Ukrainian refugees were persuaded to travel to the village of Vrangel, east of Vladivostok, according to the independent Russian online newspaper Jellyfish.
They are said to have been promised free housing, low housing interest rates and jobs, but have not yet received any of the parts.
“I do not know who I can contact for help, and I do not know what to do,” Olga, a Ukrainian nurse from Mariupol who has been deported to Vrangel, told Meduza.
Acute lack of information
The Russian priest says that the refugees he and his colleagues are talking to are bewildered and despairing.
– They have been pushed out of their country, and they have no access to information. That is the biggest challenge, says the priest on the phone from St. Petersburg.
The Ukrainian refugees do not know what they are entitled to, where they can live, whether they can find work, whether they can travel abroad or whether they can return home to Ukraine. Most of them come almost empty-handed without much money or possessions, the priest says.
– We inform them about the rules, try to find places to live for them, and book trips to other parts of Russia or out of the country. We try to find medicine for those who need it, and teaching materials for school children.
Started at zero
Mikhnov-Vaytenko says that so far, after more than three months of war, they have helped hundreds of refugees. He has long since lost count, he says.
– They are so many. We have little time to talk to each individual. We ask them where they want to go, if they have relatives waiting in other countries and if they have identification documents. Then we say “good luck and be careful”.
There is no infrastructure to receive refugees to Russia, according to the priest.
– Nothing was prepared for this situation. We have organized ourselves from a zero point.
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The Ukrainians living in the old Soviet camps in Siberia and other areas are trying to get away from there, according to the priest.
Many of them would prefer to return to Ukraine, but this is demanding for various reasons: There are insecure and ongoing fighting in several parts of the country, and the Russian-Ukrainian border is closed to civilians. The same is the border between Ukraine and Belarus. Therefore, they must first go to Romania, Moldova, Hungary, Slovakia or Poland, and then cross into Ukraine.
– It is very demanding to organize that they travel home to Ukraine. It is much easier for them to travel to Germany or other European countries, says the priest.
–Says he is not afraid
– Do you expose yourself to a risk by doing this job?
– No, I do not have to hide the help I give.
– You have explicitly criticized the Russian authorities before?
– Yes, because I’m sure the politicians are anti-Christian, so I’m against them. I am not against Russia, the Russian language or the Russian people. I am against the government, and I am against the war, first and foremost. First Chechnya, then Crimea, then Syria, and now Ukraine. In all these years, Russia has been at war, and I do not understand what we are doing here.
– What do most Russians think about the Ukraine invasion now, according to your impression?
– There are more people who are skeptical of and against the war than the government will give the impression of in the propaganda we see in the newspapers and on TV. I think more than 80 percent are against the war, the priest answers.
He says he knows of many Russians who try to help Ukrainian refugees in Russia, such as himself.
– There are countless examples of Russians who spend money on Ukrainians, who give them assets and house them in their homes. But we do all this on our own – without the support of the authorities.
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