Occupants launch new passport scheme for residents of Kherson region

In the temporarily occupied part of the Kherson region, the Russian occupation authorities have begun issuing Russian passports to local residents. Such cases are reported, in particular, in Chaplynka, Henichesk and Skadovsk.

Deputy Director of the Center for Middle East Studies Serhiy Danilov said this on the air of the Vgoru media project.

According to him, the issuance of Russian passports is part of the policy of so-called "normalization" and further integration of the temporarily occupied territories into the legal field of Russia. The occupation authorities are trying to force local residents to use Russian documents and further tie the region to the Russian administrative system.

According to the occupation administration, these documents can be used to travel abroad. A person will have to show a Russian passport when leaving the territory of Russia, and then present other documents at the border with other states. In this way, residents of the occupied territories may try to travel to European countries, as well as to Turkey or the South Caucasus.

There, according to experts, people can apply to Ukrainian diplomatic missions to restore or reissue Ukrainian documents. At the same time, Russian passports issued in the occupied territories are not recognized by Ukraine and most countries.

Danilov added that Chaplynka is not the only place where such documents are issued. A similar practice also exists in Henichesk and Skadovsk. It is in these cities that the occupation authorities have concentrated most of the administrative services, so residents of other settlements have to go there to get any documents issued.

Earlier, Intent wrote that in Kherson, a court found a woman guilty of collaboration for working for the occupiers. She helped to issue Russian passports to Ukrainians in the migration service.

In addition, the occupiers are forcing residents of the left-bank Kherson region and other temporarily occupied territories to renounce Ukrainian citizenship.

Андрій Колісніченко