Putin’s Wartime Maneuvers
On March 20, yet another Russian decree was issued, ordering the forced expulsion of Ukrainian citizens who are staying in temporarily occupied territories and in the Russian Federation without so-called legal grounds. “We view this as a vile legal act, yet another step in Russia’s campaign of discrimination, persecution, and forced displacement of Ukrainian citizens from their homeland—or a means of compelling them to obtain foreigner status in Russia,” said Heorhij Tychyj, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Kyiv, at a press conference.
Tychyj explained that Putin’s decree violates the fundamental principles of international law. “We emphasize that these systematic deportations and persecutions are part of Russia’s genocide policy against the Ukrainian people,” he added.
Refat Chubarov, head of the Mejlis (assembly) of the Crimean Tatars, also criticized the Russian leader’s decision. “It’s clear that this decree aims to force residents of the occupied territories of Ukraine to obtain passports (citizenship) of the aggressor country, Russia,” he wrote on Facebook.
Ukrainian media note that on Thursday, Putin issued a decree obliging Ukrainian citizens staying in Russia to settle the formalities regarding their legal status or leave the country by September 10. In May 2022—just a few months after Russia’s full-scale military invasion of Ukraine—Putin introduced a decree providing a simplified procedure for granting Russian citizenship to residents of the occupied Kherson and Zaporizhia regions in southern Ukraine. Previously, since 2019, a similar option had been available to residents of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk “People’s Republics,” which are controlled by Moscow.