Russia has built a tented camp for Ukrainians on the country’s south-east coast, it can be revealed, amid claims tens of thousands of people are being abducted from the besieged city of Mariupol and forcibly moved across the Russian border.

Satellite images obtained exclusively by i shows up to 30 blue and white tents have been erected in a camp at a former farmer’s market in the coastal village of Bezimenne, in separatist-controlled Donetsk, only 11 miles east of the outskirts of Mariupol.

It is the first satellite imagery showing Russia may have, as it did in Chechnya, constructed “filtration” camps inside Ukraine and comes after Mariupol’s mayor Vadim Boychenko said Russian troops have forcibly deported 6,000 Mariupol residents to camps including women and children.

A close up of the satellite image captured by Maxar Technologies showing the tented camp identified by i in the Russian controlled village of Bezimenne. People gathering around a field kitchen can be seen as small dots above the red building (Photo: Satellite image copyright 2022 Maxar Technologies)

The camp was identified by i using open-source intelligence techniques and with satellite images gathered by Maxar Technologies.

It is on waste ground next to some houses and a kindergarten in the centre of Bezimenne. It stands on the main west-east E58 road between Mariupol and Russia and is only 20 minutes’ drive from the Russian border.

While western media have not been able to visit the camp, the images suggest it may be a location where the Russians have installed a “filtration camp.”

Bezimenne is one of four locations eastwards of Mariupol along the Sea of Azov coast, with the other three over the border in Russia.

Filtration camps get their name because people are filtered by the military or other officials checking and sorting them.