Russia’s Passport Push: 3.5M Ukrainians Coerced to Accept Citizenship
On the occupied territories of Ukraine, Russia has forcibly issued 3.5 million Russian passports to local residents, British Defence Intelligence reported Friday.
According to the intelligence report, on March 4, Russian leader Vladimir Putin claimed that Russia had completed the issuance of passports to Ukrainians living in Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia.
Russian Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev reported that 3.5 million Russian passports had been issued to Ukrainians in occupied territories – an increase from the 2.8 million reported in March 2024.
British intelligence also states that Russia coerces residents of occupied Ukrainian territories into obtaining Russian passports by tying them to essential services, including social benefits, healthcare, and financial transactions.
Passport holders are also automatically subject to conscription into the Russian army. Those who refuse Russian citizenship face the risk of property confiscation.
Russia has had a policy of forced passportization of Ukrainian citizens in occupied territories since it invaded Ukraine in 2014, a process that has only increased since the start of the full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Mykhailo Savva, an expert at the Center for Civil Liberties, told Kyiv Post that this is a gross violation of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Persons in Time of War.
Andriy Yusov, a representative of Ukraine’s military intelligence (HUR), told Kyiv Post: “They are threatening to send them deeper [into Russia], and people are afraid that they will be sent to Siberia.”
Yusov also said Russia uses deportations “for the illegal seizure of property of Ukrainians in the occupied territories.”
He added: “The aggressor country is interested in mobilization resources, labor force and children.”
Russian forces have set up a new 1,000-person filtration camp in which to process the residents of Ukrainian territories that Moscow occupied in 2024.
The CNS report says that the population from these areas are being forcibly taken there to check for any cooperation with Ukraine’s defense forces, after which, once their loyalty is assured, they are compulsorily issued with Russian passports.
Russian authorities have been stepping up pressure on Ukrainians in the occupied territories since the beginning of the month when its Ministry of Internal Affairs announced the end of the issuing of passports in the occupied territories and warned that refusal to obtain a Russian document could result in deportation or other repressive measures.
Source: Kyiv Post