Media: FSB Officers Beat Ukrainians On Border Of Estonia And Russia

Here are some details.

The Estonian Security Police (KaPo) stated that at border checkpoints between Estonia and Russia, FSB officers systematically harassed Ukrainian citizens trying to get out to EU countries. There are also cases where Ukrainians were beaten there.

Postimees reports this with a reference to the published KaPo yearbook.

After the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the FSB viewed Ukrainian citizens as potential enemies trying to get into Russia or temporarily Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories and from there reach the European Union or Ukraine, KaPo writes in its yearbook.

In addition to the abuse of Ukrainians on Russian territory, the persecution of Ukrainian citizens has intensified at the Kunichina Gora and Shumilkino road checkpoints, on the border with Estonia, the report says.

According to the Ukrainians, they were subjected to conversations that were more like interrogations, they were forced to fill out questionnaires, their communications were checked and data was collected, and they were also beaten in order to obtain answers to various questions.

During the examination, people were forced to strip down to their underwear, after which they were photographed. According to those crossing the border, the FSB also made video recordings of statements that could later be used for “compromising evidence.”

Some, under the pretext of trumped-up violations, were briefly placed in detention centers. The people were “asked for consent” to take a lie detector test, and the tests were carried out.

It is also noted that in the last months of 2023, the FSB began to persecute residents of Estonia and other EU countries at border points bordering south-eastern Estonia, and there are also reports of the use of physical force.

There was no information about the use of physical violence against residents of Estonia, but locals who visited Russia described that they also experienced the methods of pressure that the Ukrainians described.