Accept Russian passport – or be deported and have your belongings confiscated.
Citizens in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine have been faced with that choice, write British Ministry of Defence.
“Russia uses passports as a tool in the ‘Russification’ of the occupied territories”.
The Russian tactics are well-proven. Even before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian citizens in the occupied regions of Donetsk and Luhansk were forced to accept Russian citizenship.
Now residents of the occupied parts of Kherson have faced the same ultimatum: accept Russian citizenship or be deported.
Residents’ deadline: June 1
The data comes from the British Ministry of Defence. According to their latest published intelligence report, residents of Kherson have been presented with a deadline for the Russian passport.
“The residents of Kherson have been warned that those who do not accept Russian passports before June 1, 2023 will be ‘deported’ and their belongings will be confiscated”.
The area is located in southern Ukraine and has a strategically important function, as it is located next to the outlet of the Dnieper River into the Black Sea. Moreover, even before the full-scale invasion began, its population was made up of a significant proportion of ethnic Russians.
Fierce battles have therefore been fought in the area and its surroundings for a long time – and Ukraine claims to have evidence that Russia committed war crimes in the area.
Putin’s election campaign
The passport compulsion in Kherson is likely an indication that Russia wants to speed up the integration of the occupied territories, according to the British Ministry of Defence.
“Russia is likely to accelerate the integration of the occupied territories of Ukraine into the bureaucracy of the Russian Federation”, they write.
An important reason for the escalation is believed to be the upcoming elections in Russia. Ahead of the presidential election next year, Vladimir Putin has continued to portray the war as a success story. If the Ukrainian area is taken up under Russian bureaucracy, Putin has yet another “success” to use in his election campaign.