Ukrainians living in Russian-occupied territory are being forced to assume Russian citizenship or face retaliation, including possible deportation or detention, a new US report has said.
Yale University researchers found that residents of the Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions were being targeted by a systematic effort to strip them of Ukrainian identity.
Ukrainians who do not seek Russian citizenship “are subjected to threats, intimidation, restrictions on humanitarian aid and basic necessities, and possible detention or deportation, all designed to force them to become Russian citizens,” the report said.
Russia’s actions were “classic war crimes in the sense that they are restricting or limiting through this process people’s ability to access critical services and resources that Russia is required to allow all people to access, such as healthcare, and humanitarian systems,” Nathaniel Raymond, the executive director of Yale School of Public Health, told CNN.
Moscow claims to have given Russian passports to more than 3 million Ukrainians since 2014, after the annexation of Crimea and occupation of Ukrainian territories since the launch of its full-scale invasion in 2022.
Russian prime minister Mikhail Mishustin said in May that Moscow had given passports to almost 1.5 million people living in parts of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions seized since October last year.
“This number has grown since then, with leaders of the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) claiming that three-quarters of residents of that oblast [region] had received Russian citizenship,” the report said.
Russian president Vladimir Putin has signed a series of decrees to compel Ukrainians to get Russian passports, in violation of international humanitarian law, the report said.
The report included a timeline of increasingly aggressive measures to pressure or force Ukrainians to become Russian citizens, starting in May 2014, when Russia illegally annexed Crimea. The timeline continues ahead to July 2024, when, according to new Russian laws, residents without Russian citizenship would be considered “foreigners” or “stateless” and can be detained in detention facilities and/or deported to Russia.
March 2014: Russia illegally annexes Crimea and passportisation begins. Nine months after annexation, Russia claims that over 1.5 million people in Crimea have received Russian citizenship.
February 2022: Russia’s full-scale invasion begins and Moscow captures parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. Three months later, citizenship application in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia is simplified. This follows the simplification of citizenship applications in Donetsk and Luhansk in 2019. In September 2022. Russia illegally annexes Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
18 March 2023: Russia introduces a law on unilateral renunciation of Ukrainian citizenship introduced. The policy allows residents to “renounce” their Ukrainian citizenship unilaterally. Two days later, Putin calls for passportisation to be accelerated and local occupation authorities quickly announce new passporting offices and mobile teams.
27 April 2023: Russia adopts a law that will allow authorities to detain or deport residents without Russian passports. Starting July 2024, residents without Russian citizenship will be considered “foreigners” or “stateless”.
6 June 2023: Destruction of the Kakhovka dam, resulting in widespread flooding and displacement. Russia’s forces use the aftermath to push citizenship on residents. Russian passport holders are made eligible for compensation for the flood damage, whereas Ukrainian passport holders are eligible only for only a small flat payment.
26 June 2023: Planning begins for deportation and detention facilities. The head of the so-called “Donetsk People’s Republic” announces a planning group to study facilities for detaining residents without Russian passports for deportation.
1 July 2024: Ukrainian residents who have not accepted Russian citizenship can be detained and/or deported, including to remote areas of Russia.
The report said: “While states are afforded wide discretion under international law with regards to conferring nationality, customary international law clearly forbids the imposition of citizenship without consent or under duress.”
The report was released as part of the Conflict Observatory program, with the support of the US state department and conducted by research partner the Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab.
