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Ukraine’s defense ministry on Wednesday claimed that "fighting-age" men in southern and eastern regions of Ukraine are being abducted en masse in part for Russian propaganda "victory parades."
Both Western and Ukrainian officials have warned that Russia could be targeting a significant advancement in Ukraine by May 9, also known as Victory Day, which celebrates when Russia defeated Nazi Germany in 1945.
A Ukrainian serviceman looks as smoke rises after a Russian troops shelling, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in Luhansk Region, Ukraine April 26, 2022. (REUTERS/Serhii Nuzhnenko)
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Ukraine first announced last week that it believed Russia was looking to forcibly conscript Ukrainian men in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions to "replenish" its forces.
But on Wednesday its defense ministry said it suspects there is another reason why it is targeting able-fighting men.
"The main purpose of such actions is to ‘replenish the exchange fund’," the defense ministry said. "Ukrainian hostages are planned to be exchanged for Russian war criminals.
"It is also possible to organize propaganda ‘victory parades’ with the participation of detained Ukrainians," the statement continued.
An armed serviceman of Donetsk People's Republic militia walks past a building damaged during fighting in Mariupol on Wednesday. (AP/Alexei Alexandrov)
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The Ukrainian defense ministry said it had received information that the abducted men may be paraded through "the streets of occupied cities" as "prisoners of war."
"The victims of the occupiers are often men of military age," the ministry said in a statement, noting that former military, law enforcement officers and pro-Ukrainian activists are being targeted and taken to "filtration camps."
The ministry said that an estimated 400 Russian soldiers bearing the "Rosguard" uniform donned by Russia’s National Guard recently arrived at a village in the Kherson region to search for and detain men of military age.
"The detained Ukrainian men are being taken out en masse in the direction of the occupied Crimea," the ministry said.
A Ukrainian serviceman poses with a Russian beret he retrieved from destroyed Russian military vehicles on his weapon, at the Antonov airport in Hostomel, Ukraine, Saturday, April 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
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Another 300 Ukrainian activists and military veterans are said to be being held at a "pre-trial detention center" in Kherson where they are being "interrogated and tortured" – though the statement did not go into any details on what they are being interrogated about.
Ukraine has said the arbitrary detainment and forced deportation of its citizens amounts to war crimes.