Simon Ostrovsky Profile picture
Jun 20, 2022 5 tweets 3 min read Read on X
Our @nytvideo team went to Estonia to interview a dozen Ukrainian refugees who survived the siege of Mariupol & were then forced to resettle in Russia. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have been forcibly removed & pressured to take Russian citizenship.
nytimes.com/video/world/eu…
Everyone we spoke to had been subjected to intrusive interrogations known as “filtration” before being put on evacuation trains to remote locations around Russia. They described seeing men who didn’t pass the screening being led away without explanation.
The refugees we interviewed managed to find their way out of Russia and escape to the EU - a trickle of people cross each day - but the vast majority of those forced out of the eastern parts of Ukraine remain behind enemy lines without the resources or ability to get out.
Thank you to @IngaSpringe & @holger_r in Estonia, cinematographer @AlesPavone and @tiefenthaeler and @sameenamin in New York for their tireless work putting this investigation together and to all the Ukrainian refugees who were brave enough to share their stories with @nytvideo.
Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians are still stuck in Russia without the resources to escape. This organization in Estonia pays for hotels, food and travel to get people out and relies on a network of hundreds of selfless volunteers in Russia and Europe. mariupolisobrad.helihool.ee/index.html#don…

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More from @SimonOstrovsky

Feb 21, 2025
I’m excited to announce a new feature-length documentary project I’m working on with my co-director @apoolos about Russia’s efforts to eradicate Evangelical Christians from the map of Ukraine to impose Russian Orthodoxy as the state religion. Please support this film by donating paypal.com/paypalme/simon…
Not many people know about the holy war being waged within the larger war in Ukraine, but Russian forces have methodically destroyed, expropriated and closed Christian churches representing the “wrong” denominations in the territory they have taken control of. They’ve also kidnapped and tortured hundreds of clergy and killed many priests and pastors.
I believe this is an incredibly important topic to be covering at the moment because so many Americans think this is just a war for territory. But it’s so much worse than that. It’s a war of Russian cultural supremacy and those who don’t bow down are wiped out. But don’t take my word for it, this project is based on documentary video evidence.
Read 5 tweets
Feb 19, 2025
I was in Crimea in 2014 when Russia sent troops to take over the peninsula. I meticulously documented the war they started in Ukraine in over 100 episodes & several documentaries for VICE News. Russia has been lying about its involvement from the start. youtube.com/playlist?list=…
After Moscow finally admitted Russian soldiers had carried out the Crimea operation Russia started denying it was taking part in the war in eastern Ukraine. So I made this documentary explaining how it was sending forces across the border in secret:
During the fighting over eastern Ukraine Russian & Russia-backed forces began kidnapping & murdering evangelical Christians because they consider Protestantism to be an American faith, adding a dimension of religious persecution to the war Moscow started.
Read 7 tweets
Dec 23, 2024
Why is Russia trying to mask its use of North Korean troops in its war against Ukraine? My sources in Ukraine have provided me with the first hard evidence of DPRK casualties, killed on December 18th in fighting in Russia’s Kursk region. Image
Image
It includes Russian military IDs recovered from the bodies of the soldiers that state that they are from the Tuva region of Russia, not the DPRK, however the IDs are purportedly issued in 2018 yet somehow look brand new and one of them bears a signature in the Korean language. Image
Ukraine’s president also recently posted a video allegedly showing a soldier burning the face of a casualty believed to be North Korean to hide their identity. Why go to all this trouble when Russia and North Korea signed a mutual defense pact quite publicly?
Read 6 tweets
Aug 23, 2023
“Human rights activist perishes tragically” Image
“Restauranteur dies in aviation mishap”
“Media tycoon killed in private jet crash”
Read 5 tweets
Sep 14, 2022
“Putin’s Chef” Prigozhin recruiting mercenaries for the war in Ukraine in a prison. “In 1/2 a year you go home with a pardon… there’s no way you end up back in prison. Those who arrive on the first day and don’t like where they’ve ended up are considered deserters and get shot.”
“We’re very careful with those who are serving time for sexual crimes. But we understand that mistakes happen.”
“Everyone who dies, your bodies are delivered to wherever you indicate in your will… everyone gets buried in the Heroes’ Promenade in the cities that have them.”
Read 5 tweets
Sep 14, 2022
This week Azerbaijan conducted strikes in Armenia killing 49 troops. This represents a serious escalation because until now the conflict between the two countries has been mostly limited to Karabakh which is inside Azerbaijan.
Russia has a NATO-style pact with Armenia in which an attack on one is supposed to be seen as an attack on all. Russia was not obligated to intervene when fighting was centered on Karabakh but now Armenia’s PM has officially asked for Russian assistance.
What’s more, Armenia is claiming Russian border guards sent into Karabakh as part of the 2020 ceasefire accord where targeted in the Azerbaijani strikes. No one was killed but Armenia is sharing these pictures of a damaged Russian base. ImageImage
Read 7 tweets

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