The Russian Prime Minister stated that Russia had issued 1.5 million passports in the occupied territories of Ukraine. Experts suggest that this action is modifying the social fabric and identity of Ukrainians in territories where Russia does not have complete control.
Russia has handed out 1.5 million passports in territories it occupies in Ukraine, Moscow’s Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said Tuesday.
This month, people from the occupied regions (Ukraine’s Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson) informed that they had been pressured into taking up a Russian passport, which is necessary to fill out basic bureaucracy.
Kyiv has likened the passport handouts to efforts to suppress Ukrainian identity.
Despite not controlling them fully, Moscow has claimed to have annexed the four regions.
Russia has been issuing passports to people living in the eastern Donbas areas held by pro-Moscow separatists since 2014 and annexed Crimea.
With its full-scale offensive in Ukraine launched last February, the Kremlin has accelerated that drive.
Justify its occupation
Experts said Moscow had been steadily imposing its passports to justify its occupation, tighten control, and undermine Ukrainian identity.
It’s difficult to say exactly how many passports Russia has issued in occupied Ukraine, and even more challenging to say how many of those went to willing recipients.
Moscow released a figure in late November of 80,000 passports given out just since Putin had claimed to have annexed four Ukrainian territories in September.
“Erase Ukrainian identity”
Humanitarian groups have taken a harm-reduction stance on the issue, saying people need to survive, and sometimes Russian passports are part of that.
Yet long after the documents are issued, the fingerprints, photos, and family information collected from applicants will remain in Russia’s possession, a boon for its security apparatus.
The information also serves as a ready-made list for drafting men into Russia’s war effort, which experts say has already happened.
Despite Russia blocking access to vital services for those without its passports, some things cannot be done with them.
The European Union said it would not recognize Russian passports issued in regions of Ukraine annexed by Moscow.
The move—which also covers two Kremlin-controlled areas of Georgia—means Russian travel documents given to residents of those regions cannot be used to get visas or to enter the Schengen zone.
Miroslava Salazar with AFP
