A state-owned enterprise in Belarus has set up a filtration camp for Ukrainians.

At the outset of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian occupiers established a filtration camp on Belarusian territory, where they unlawfully detained and tortured captured Ukrainians—both military personnel and civilians. The exact location was discovered by journalists from “Schemes” in collaboration with the “Belarusian Investigative Center,” the Belarusian branch of “Radio Free Europe,” and with support from the Reckoning Project, a war crimes documentation initiative, along with the hacker group “Cyber Partisans.”

On Thursday, November 28, investigators released a report detailing the filtration camp for Ukrainians in the Belarusian city of Narovlya. The filtration site was set up in one of the buildings of the state enterprise “Pripyat Alliance.” It is noted that the camp operated for at least several months throughout 2022.

Within the filtration camp, Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilians were held. They were subjected to torture, beatings, and interrogations, and were later used to create Russian propaganda videos. Among those in the camp were also children. Some Ukrainians who were in the filtration camp in Narovlya, according to human rights defenders, are still in Russian captivity, having been transferred to correctional colonies in Russia.

Human rights organizations regard the beatings, interrogations, and torture occurring within the filtration camp in Belarus as an international crime. The actions of the dictatorial regime in Belarus, which allowed the Russian army to establish a site for the imprisonment of Ukrainians on its territory, are also deemed criminal.