Ukraine Moves To Criminalize Russian Passport Application

Less than a month after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a hugely controversial decree ordering that “all citizens of Ukraine” be given “the right to apply for admission to the citizenship of the Russian Federation in a simplified manner,” Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereschuk revealed on Friday that lawmakers intend to make obtaining Russian citizenship as a Ukrainian a criminal offense.

In a Telegram post, Vereschuk said that the matter had previously been discussed during a closed interdepartmental meeting, RT reported.

“The question is not so much a legal one as a political one. 

On the one hand, the occupier’s passport helps an ordinary person to survive the temporary occupation. 

On the other hand, how to explain it to our citizens who stand to die for us all on the front lines? Including for the fact that there will never be Russian passports on our land.

You can have a long and difficult discussion about legal subtleties, human rights and the need to survive under occupation.

 But let’s not forget: there is a lot of Ukrainian blood on the red Russian passport – military and civilian, women and children.“

The deputy prime minister concluded:

“Work on the draft law continues, there will be discussions, but the direction has been determined.”

Two days ago, she wrote on Facebook that passports and referendums were being used by Moscow as “weapons, more dangerous than missiles.”

In her opinion, these “weapons” enable Russia to create a “live shield” of Ukrainian citizens in the territories it controls.