Thousands of people living in Russian-occupied southern and eastern Ukraine are being forced to apply for Russian passports at the cost of their Ukrainian citizenship, following a decree issued by Vladimir Putin last month.
Those who refuse face prison or deportation. They can also lose access to humanitarian aid or their pension. In effect, the Russian state is saying to these residents: you are no longer Ukrainian (even though Russia permits dual citizenship).
This is a new form of terror by Russia against Ukrainians living in the occupied Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.
