Is it true that the Red Cross is helping Russia to forcibly evacuate Ukrainians?

Many Ukrainian sources claim that the International Committee of the Red Cross allegedly participated in the forced resettlement of Ukrainians to Russia. We checked whether this is indeed the case.

Messages, accusing the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) of the forced evacuation of Ukrainians to Russia began to appear at the end of March 2022. Internet users as evidence referred on report on the evacuation of Donbass residents to Russia, published on the website of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Some Ukrainian media stated: “The International Committee of the Red Cross admitted that it contributed to the deportation of Ukrainians to Russia.” Many social network users demanded explanations from the ICRC, called donors to the organization to withdraw their donations, and also launched petition with demands to conduct an investigation into the actions of the ICRC in Ukraine. On the day of publication of this analysis, the petition was signed by more than 5,000 people.

First, let's look at the structure of related organizations associated with the name "Red Cross", and then - with the possible involvement of each of them in the forced evacuation of Ukrainians. The general term for the entire humanitarian association is the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. The movement includes national societies Red Cross and Red Crescent, ICRC and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).

National Societies act as assistants to the government authorities of their countries in the humanitarian field. There are no such societies in the world 192, including Red Cross of Ukraine (KKU) and Russian Red Cross (RKK). National societies operate exclusively on the territory of their country and do not conduct any negotiations with other states about cooperation, humanitarian assistance or opening offices in neighboring countries. During war, they provide aid to injured civilians and sometimes medical services to the army.

The scandal with forced evacuations also affected the KKU. Many social media users called for people to stop donating money to society and demanded conduct an investigation into the expenses of the CCU in order to find out whether funds intended for Ukraine were spent in Russia. In this regard, the CCU published a statement in which he recalled his autonomy and disavowed the actions of the ICRC. Perhaps Ukrainians’ distrust of the CCU is partly due to the fact that in 2016, journalists, activists and Red Cross volunteers exposed corruption schemes in the organization.

Another participant in the movement is the ICRC. Target This organization helps people affected by armed conflicts and violence. All negotiations (for example, about the opening humanitarian corridors or prisoner exchange) is led by the ICRC, it can also act as a neutral intermediary to resolve humanitarian problems. The organization characterizes the fighting in Ukraine as a conflict and has not issued statements explicitly condemning or supporting Russia's actions. A neutral position allows the committee to receive donations from organizations and individuals who do not want to take sides.

Wave critics Ukrainian media addressed the ICRC recently visit the organization's president, Peter Maurer, to Moscow to conduct negotiations with the Russian government on the opening of an ICRC office in Rostov-on-Don. Media accused committee in complicity with Russia. Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Committee on Human Rights spoke against the opening of this office. And the chairman of the parliamentary committee on the health of the nation, Mikhail Radutsky wrote an open letter to the ICRC with a request not to open a reception center for Ukrainian refugees in Rostov-on-Don, because this step will legitimize Russian refugee export corridors, which have been repeatedly rejected Ukrainian authorities.

ICRC press secretary in Ukraine Alexander Vlasenko named the accusations against the organization are unfounded. According to press release, before leaving for Moscow, Maurer visited Ukraine, met with the country's leadership and discussed all issues. Vlasenko added: “The issue of opening an office in Rostov was just discussed, there is no office there yet. It was once there, but it was closed in 2019, and I don’t know whether it will be opened now. We wanted to open an office there to have quicker access to prisoners of war. We have a responsibility to help people wherever they are.” ICRC too denied accusations of forced deportations and explained the desire to open an office in Russia by the need to deliver help where it is needed. As a result, it is not yet known whether the ICRC will open an office in Rostov-on-Don.

There are also those who supported the opening of the office. Author of a post in a Ukrainian blog writes: “I believe that it is precisely in order to help Ukrainians forcibly taken to Russia that the ICRC is opening its mission in Rostov-on-Don. To those who are dissatisfied: can you help the Ukrainians taken to Russia? But the ICRC can. They won't come there under yellow-blue flags? Yes. But they will come. And they will be accepted. Precisely because of their neutrality. Because of their “both ours and yours,” which outrages you so much.”

Finally, the third element of the Red Cross Movement is the IFRC. The Federation provides support to National Societies and also helps during peacetime crises, such as natural disasters. It was on the federation’s website that the report Evacuation of People from Donbass Area to Russia was published.” The document has now been deleted, but has been preserved in the media and social networks. excerpts from the report And screenshots. According to the report, “resettlement” to Rostov and other regions of Russia began on February 18, 2022. Over three days, 61,000 people, mostly women, children and pensioners, were taken out of Donbass. He supervised the relocation of the RKK. By words one of the Twitter users - a Finnish journalist and director Nina Pulkkis —, the report on the IFRC website can be published by anyone with a personal account. She claims that she asked for comment and received a response from the IFRC: it was not an official report, and the person who published it himself deleted it. We tried to contact Pulkkis, as well as the press service of the IFRC, but at the time of publication of this analysis we had not yet received a response.

So where did the accusations of forced evacuation come from? At the end of March, Ukrainian Media And officials reported the forced evacuation of Ukrainian residents, not by the Red Cross, but by Russian troops. By words Ukrainian Ombudsman Lyudmila Denisova, the Russian side illegally deported about 400,000 Ukrainians. “Our citizens were deported from our territory to their territory. They did not leave of their own free will; they were forcibly taken first to a filtration camp in the Donetsk region. After that, they are taken by bus to Russia. Then they are taken by train to different places, in particular to depressed regions of the Russian Federation like Sakhalin,” she said.

In these camps, according to some sources, undergoes an in-depth personal check. “They take away phones, Ukrainian documents and issue a kind of Ausweiss (certificates that were issued by the German occupation authorities during the Great Patriotic War. - Ed.). According to this ausweis, those whom the occupiers consider trustworthy can enter the territory of the Russian Federation,” says press secretary of the Donetsk military-civil administration Tatyana Ignatchenko-Tyurina.

By words Deputy Mayor of Mariupol Sergei Orlov, the Russian military intimidates the townspeople so that they agree to go to Russia: “Russian soldiers simply open the shelter and tell them: “You have five minutes to evacuate in this direction. Just go, walk 3-5-7 km, and buses will transport you to a temporarily controlled territory. If you don’t leave, this house will be bombed in an hour.” Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine published advice to those who were forcibly taken to Russia. There are also interview witnesses of such evacuations.

Whether or not such statements and testimonies are true, the Red Cross has no direct involvement with them. Perhaps the indignant Ukrainian public has reason to accuse the CCU of corruption, the ICRC of continuing dialogue with Russia and refusing to violate neutrality, and the IFRC of publishing statistics on the number of evacuated Ukrainians. But from all this it does not follow that any of the Red Cross organizations were involved in the forced evacuation. Apparently, according to the logic of the authors of the accusatory publications, if the Red Cross acted as a mediator in the coordination of humanitarian corridors, and then the Russian army forcibly removed Ukrainian residents along them, then it automatically became an accomplice in the crime.

Not true

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. ICRC - a guide for beginners
2. Is it true that the Ukrainians falsified a report about the shelling of a maternity hospital in Mariupol?
3. Is it true that the Odessa administration issued a written order not to allow civilians to leave the city along humanitarian corridors?