The occupying authorities continue to methodically erase Ukrainian identity in the temporarily occupied territories. A new decree by Russian President Vladimir Putin obliges all Ukrainian citizens living in the occupied territories who have not yet received a Russian passport to “legalize” themselves or leave the region by 10 September.
Formally, this is another administrative procedure. In reality, it is a deliberate move aimed at breaking down resistance and finally turning Ukrainians into “Russians.” Those who do not subscribe to the new reality are forced by the Kremlin to become “migrants” on their own land – with mandatory biometrics collection, medical tests, registration with the police, and the daily fear of being deported.
“We were already warned: there will be no passport, no doctor, no job, no school. Nothing. You simply have no rights. You only have a duty — to remain silent,” says Halyna from Tokmak. Her son, she says, was recently detained for refusing to cooperate with the “new administration.”
In the villages, the situation is even worse. Where the Russian presence is not as dense, pressure often occurs through a system of denunciations, blackmail, and economic pressure. People are left without pensions, without jobs, without medical services. Everything depends on the “document” issued by the occupier.
“There are few men left in our village. The youth have left or have been mobilized, the elders are afraid to leave the house again. Without a passport, you are nobody. And with a passport, you are a traitor,” says a woman from the temporarily occupied part of the Kherson region.
These practices are not new. Forcing citizenship change in occupied territory is a gross violation of international humanitarian law, in particular, the Geneva Conventions. Russia, from the very beginning of its full-scale aggression, has demonstrated complete disregard for international norms. The passporting tool is just another means of colonial control.
The mechanism is simple: either you agree to assimilation, or you are squeezed out, forced to be silent, physically destroyed. This is not just administrative policy – it is ethnic cleansing. Gradual, quiet, but quite conscious. And aimed primarily at those who resist.
In times of war, the compulsion to become a citizen takes on special importance. After all, those who have received Russian passports are also sent to mobilization bases. Thus, Moscow is destroying Ukrainians not only as a nation, but also using them as cannon fodder for its imperial war.
This process is part of a wider chain of imperial crimes. What is happening now in Melitopol, Berdyansk, and Novaya Kakhovka is a logical continuation of the deportations of Crimean Tatars, the policies of Russification in Belarus, the forced Russification of Buryats, Sakha, Erzya, and Circassians. All these people are targets of the same system. And each of them can find in this common experience an echo of their own history.
Against this backdrop, the world’s silence is especially bitter. What is happening now is not just a problem for Ukraine. It is a challenge for everyone who values freedom, dignity, and the right to call themselves who they are.
The Russian Empire is playing out the old scenarios again. But this time, it is not just one nation that is against it. Today, it is Ukrainians. Tomorrow, it is everyone who refuses to be “part of Great Russia.” This is the basis of the solidarity of nations.
Because our memory, our language, and our name are what they want to take away. This is exactly what we should fight for together.
Danyil Kozachok
