A Ukrainian woman has told me how she was subjected to a terrifying ordeal in a Russian filtration camp 11 miles east of Mariupol. This is Viktoriya's story. @theipaper 🧵 1/ inews.co.uk/news/ukrainian…
When Russia attacked the city, Viktoriya was trapped in her second-floor apartment with her elderly mother, Valentina, who was bed-ridden with a chronic heart condition. For weeks, Valentina, aged 85, had no medication and they had no electricity or gas and little food. 2/ 
A Jewish lady born in Stalingrad, Valentina survived the Nazi Holocaust in Ukraine where she grew up as a child. But in March this year, as Russian bombs shook their apartment block, she died. 'Her heart just stopped,' Viktoriya says. 3/
Aged 60, Viktoriya had no other relatives in Mariupol. She was alone. Her apartment burned down in the shelling. With her mother dead and no possessions left, she knew he had to get out of the city. Then a car trundled down the road. She asked to be taken to safety and got in. 4/
The driver headed east through the rubble to Bezimenne, a village on the shore of the Sea of Azov. In English, Bezimenne translates as 'nameless'. It is the place where @theiaper first identified as the location of a Russian filtration camp in March. 5/ inews.co.uk/news/ukrainian…
Viktoriya says the camp contained a number of tents containing chairs, heaters and mattresses. In the early hours of the morning, it was her turn to go through filtration. She was taken to a big tent, where men in uniform were sitting behind computers. 6/
One of the men began asking her questions: 'What is your job?' They took photographs of her and took her fingerprints. They told her to hand over her phone and passport. 'They were behaving as if they wanted to punish me,' Viktoriya says. Then she was told to wait outside. 7/
Viktoriya was still standing in the darkness when 'the big man' walked towards her. 'Follow me,' he said. He led her to an empty tent, where he pulled out a gun and poked it at her stomach. 'We know everything about you,' he told her. 'You have reached your final destination.' 8/
Viktoriya's 'crime' was to have the Ukrainian flag 🇺🇦 on her Facebook profile. 'He told me he was going to tear me apart,' Viktoriya says. 'He said he would make sure I rot in a cellar'. 9/
Then the man pushed her outside. He kicked her in the back. After a few moments of indecision, he walked away and left her. 'I thought I was going to die, Viktoriya says. 'I don't know how I survived.' 10/
It was only by a miracle that Viktoriya did survive. She managed to leave the camp and make contact with a rabbi, who led her and a group of other people under the shelling through more than 30 checkpoints to Ukrainian territory. 11/
Like many people in Mariupol, Viktoriya is a Russian speaker. She does not understand the war. 'Russia claims it is protecting Russian speakers, but it is killing us,' she says. 'Before the war, we lived peaceful and happy lives in Mariupol. It was our home.' 12/
For the last two months, I have been investigating Russian filtration camps for @theipaper. Read Viktoriya's story and the latest updates on the investigation here⬇️ inews.co.uk/news/ukrainian…
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