Kiev accuses Russia of deportations - Ukrainians have to strip naked for inspections

Kiev (Ukraine) - "How can you go to a country that wants to kill you?" asks Tetjana. For weeks, the Ukrainian woman hid from the Russian attacks in a cellar in Mariupol; her father was killed by a rocket. Tetjana and her nine-year-old daughter just wanted to get away from the occupied city. In the end, the only refuge was Russia - the country of the invaders.

Other inhabitants of the southern Ukrainian city had the same fate. They had no choice but to go to Russia. The government in Kiev speaks of "deportations".

During a ceasefire, she went to a collection point set up by the pro-Russian administration, Tetjana says on the phone. It was the only way to find out how to get out of the destroyed city, as the cell phone network had long since collapsed.

There she was told that she could only go to Russia, reports the 38-year-old accountant. "We were in shock. We didn't want to go to Russia."

For several weeks now, the Ukrainian authorities have been accusing Moscow of "illegally" bringing more than one million Ukrainians to Russia or to Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine . Mikhail Misintsev from the Russian Ministry of Defense confirms the figure and speaks of "evacuations from dangerous areas".

In fact, in some places all roads except the one to Russia are blocked by fighting. "It was impossible to go to Ukraine," says Yelysaveta from the eastern Ukrainian town of Isyum, which is currently under Russian control.

Yelysaveta has since managed to travel on from Russia to Estonia.

Svitlana, whose real name is different, also hid in a cellar in Mariupol with her husband and parents-in-law until Russian soldiers ordered them to move to Russian-controlled territory. "When an armed man tells you that, you can't really say no," says the 46-year-old.

The family was initially taken to the nearby small town of Novoazovsk, where the pro-Russian separatists are in charge. After four days in a school, they had to move on to an overcrowded community center in Starobesheve, also in the separatist area, where they slept on the floor.

"The worst thing was the smell of dirty feet and dirty bodies. It stuck to our clothes even after we had washed them several times," says Svitlana.

The separatist police interrogated the family. They all had to answer written questions about relatives in the Ukrainian army and hand over their cell phones.

"As a precaution, we deleted all photos and social media from our phones," says Svitlana, who has since found refuge in Lviv in western Ukraine. The men in the family had to undress and their bodies were checked for battle wounds and patriotic tattoos.

Ivan Druz, who left Mariupol with his half-brother in April, also reports on the phone about the body search in Starobesheve. "They asked me if I was a Nazi," says the 23-year-old. He and his half-brother also had no choice but to travel on to Russia - just like Tetjana and her daughter. There they were sent from one city to the next until they were finally able to travel to Moscow with the help of friends.

There they took buses to Latvia. "Here we finally feel free," says Tetjana.