Every month, the Russian "authority" accelerates the forced passportization in the occupied territories, in particular in Luhansk oblast.Today people in the occupation need a Russian passport everywhere. It is impossible to pay a visit to a doctor, pass an exam or receive a pension without it.
As of December 19, 2020, 168,381 Russian passports were issued in the occupied Luhansk oblast. There is no data on the number of passports received in the so-called "LPR" now. However, the Russian occupiers are doing everything to increase this figure.Oppression, propaganda, intimidation, etc. are involved in the process of "passportization".In addition, Russians manipulate the subject of obtaining a Russian passport and citizenship, spread fakes.
Fake 1: Shooting
The occupiers spread fake information that after the liberation of the territory, the Ukrainian military will shoot all those who received Russian passports.In fact, this is a manipulation by which the Russians convince the Ukrainians that their country no longer needs them.Dmytro Lubinets, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, has repeatedly reminded that the authorities are not going to punish people who received passports of the Russian Federation in order to save their lives.
"The government will never agree to the "conscious and voluntary" obtaining of a Russian passport by Ukrainians.However, for citizens of Ukraine in the temporarily occupied territories, it is a matter of survival," said Lubinets at one of the press conferences.
Fake 2: Everyone is a collaborator
The Russians intimidate the Ukrainians in the occupation by saying that everyone who received a Russian passport is considered a collaborator and these people will be accountable to the law in Ukraine under the article "Collaborative Activity".This is another Russian fake.
In fact, according to the mentioned article 111-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which establishes criminal liability for aiding the aggressor state, only collaborators will be judged.Collaborators are considered to be persons who knowingly cooperate with the occupying civil or military authorities to the detriment of their own state.According to general national law, the activities of collaborators are recognized as treason against citizens and as betrayal of the interests of their state.
Ordinary civilians who received a Russian passport to go to work, study or receive treatment are not considered to be collaborators.The occupying "authorities" deliberately creates conditions in which people have no right to live without a passport of the Russian Federation.
The head of Luhansk oblast, Artem Lisohor, also confirms the fact of manipulations connected with passportization.
"Police officers from the Russian Federation are forcing residents of the occupied Luhansk oblast to issue Russian passports.There are employees of regional migration departments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation.
"Seconded employees " threaten local residents, claiming that they will be left without work, the opportunity to receive education and even medical care in the absence of this document, which, as it turned out, is important even for health," - the head of Luhansk regional military administration reports in his Telegram.
A resident of the occupied Luhansk oblast, Olha (name changed at the request of the heroine), confirmed pressure from the Russian side:
"There is no other choice here - we are forced to take these damned passports, because without them soon you won't be able to buy food.I was forced to get a Russian passport in the winter of 2022, otherwise I was threatened with dismissal from work, and I have three children who need to be fed.Today life under occupation is more dangerous without a Russian passport than with it.If you don't do it, everyone has questions: "why", "maybe you are pro-Ukrainian?", they can arrange to check your phone or apartment...".
Renunciation of Ukrainian citizenship
The occupiers are trying to simplify the procedure for obtaining a Russian passport as much as possible, so from December 26, 2022, in order to obtain a passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation, "passports" of the "LPR", "DPR" are no longer needed, people only write a renunciation of Ukrainian citizenship and an application for obtaining a passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation.As human rights defender Pavlo Lysyanskyi told TRYBUN, before the full-scale invasion about 900,000 people received Russian passports in the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
"In 2019, they started passporting in the temporarily occupied territories, but then they had a condition - in order to get a passport of the Russian Federation, you must issue a "passport" of the "LPR" or "DPR".Then on the basis of this "passport" you received a Russian one.So they gave out about 900,000 passports, a little short of a million passports," said Lysyanskyi.
The Russians created another fake: "When you receive a Russian passport, you renounce Ukrainian citizenship."
The occupiers threaten that Ukraine itself deprives people of Ukrainian citizenship, establishing that they write statements.In fact, in the conditions of forced passporting during the occupation, such renunciation of Ukrainian citizenship is considered invalid. Lysyanskyi told TRYBUN about this:
"The law tells us: Part 6 of Art. 5 of the Law of Ukraine "On the Legal Regime in the Temporarily Occupied Territories and the Protection of Human Rights in the Temporarily Occupied Territories" - that the forced acquisition of Russian citizenship is not recognized by Ukraine and it is not such a legal fact.The law exclusively says that if the passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation is forcibly inserted, there will be no criminal liability for this, and there will be no deprivation of Ukrainian citizenship."
The reason Ukrainians write statements may be coercion and intimidation of the population.In particular, in the period from February to April 2023, the Eastern Human Rights Group recorded 139 cases of local residents being detained by the occupiers because they did not want to renounce their Ukrainian citizenship.Some people were released, and some continue to be in the occupiers' prisons.
"Propaganda on screens"
In order to make the residents of the occupied territories receive Russian passports more actively, the so-called authorities use their favorite method - propaganda.It consists in showing in the stories on the screens, in the posts in their Telegram channels, that a lot of people of different age categories are issuing Russian passports.
So, for example, in Sievierodonetsk, the occupiers publicly issued passports to 5 minor its residents and the residents of Borivske on the day of the creation of the so-called "LPR".
Passports are also being issued to elderly residents of Luhansk oblast, for example, in Luhansk and Troitsky the occupiers handed over "documents" to two pensioners:
They even publicly give passports to people with disabilities.So, the passport was handed over to Eldar from Lysychansk, who was disabled as a child.
The occupiers also focused on the fact that the boy allegedly dreamed about Russian passport.
The occupying "administrations" cannot create normal conditions for the life of the civilian population, but they easily create conditions for getting passports.
For example, transport was launched from Lysychansk so that people could get to the passport office in occupied Sievierodonetsk to issue a Russian passport.
According to Luhansk regional military administration, residents of Luhansk oblast are still reluctant to issue Russian passports and the productivity of this process is extremely low.
"In the so-called "LPR" they note extremely low rates of passporting among the elderly.
As previously reported, in order to increase these indicators, mobile teams and volunteers even issue all the necessary documents on-site.However, if we take the indicators of Milovshchyna, captured 15 months ago, less than 200 out of more than 600 residents of the community, over 80 years old, have received a Russian passport."
