Jan. 26, 2025, 6:01 p.m.

Russian Authorities Plan New Town on Arabat Spit, Excluding Locals

(Photo: Depositphotos)

The occupation authorities are planning to build a new town on Arabat Spit, but only citizens of the Russian Federation will be able to settle there.

According to the activists of the Yellow Ribbon resistance movement, local residents will not have the opportunity to settle in the new settlement.

The Arabat Spit is a narrow sandy spit over 100 km long, stretching between the Sea of Azov and the Sivash Bay. Its northern part is located in the Kherson region, near the city of Henichesk.

"They want to destroy the Arabat Spit - the ecology, the culture, everything that is left here. They want to bring in tens of thousands of Russians, repressing the local population that has lived here for decades, if not centuries. To survive us by all possible means to replace the locals with outsiders. It's very scary," the activist said.

In the temporarily occupied territory of Kherson region, the Russian administration of Skadovsk is creating lists of citizens under the guise of "checking" real estate documents. This is actually a tool to strengthen control over local residents and prepare for repression. These "inventories" have already been used by the occupiers to deprive those who have renounced Russian citizenship of their homes. People living in housing under the illegal "acts" of the occupation authorities are at risk of losing their homes.

The enemy does not stop the process of forcing residents of the temporarily occupied territories to obtain Russian passports. For example, on the left bank of the Kherson region, the occupiers stopped issuing coal for heating private households to those who have not received a Russian passport. One can receive coal or compensation only if they have red waste paper.

Meanwhile, starting February 5, 2025, the Kremlin regime will introduce a new law "On the Legal Status of Foreign Citizens in the Russian Federation." According to it, Ukrainians who have not received a Russian passport or changed their citizenship in the temporarily occupied territories will not be able to legalize their relations.

In addition, it is now possible to top up a mobile account in the TOT only with a Russian passport or authorization through the Russian portal of public services. This innovation is part of the enemy's strategy to tighten control over Ukrainians and speed up forced passportization. From now on, anyone who wants to use mobile communication must provide personal data, which will allow the occupiers to more accurately track the owners of the numbers.

According to recent reports, 240,000 people in the Kherson region were forced by Russians to exchange their Ukrainian passports for Russian ones.

Олеся Ланцман

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