Crimeans who flee Russian conscription want to get Ukrainian passports

YEVHEN KIZILOV – MONDAY, 3 OCTOBER 2022, 18:03

Hundreds of people who arrived in Astana from Russian-occupied Crimea have gathered in front of the Ukrainian embassy in Kazakhstan. Many of them plan to obtain foreign passports.

Source: Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

Details: Those who arrived from Crimea (most of them are Crimean Tatars) reported that they were forced to leave so as not to fall under the draft announced by Putin.

Quote from a man near the embassy: "Many of us do not want to fight. We Muslims always preach peace. How can you preach peace if you kill someone? Peaceful people die there [in Ukraine], civilian infrastructure is destroyed. Why would Muslims do this? That is why many of us just refused it."

More details: The man says that he transits through Kazakhstan, because next, he plans to go to Uzbekistan; his brother who lives there invited and offered him a job.

Another man, a long-distance bus driver who came from Crimea, said that he and his family left the peninsula after he was ordered to bring their military service books to work. Currently, he and his wife want to obtain foreign passports and go to Europe.

Ivan Almashi, Consul of Ukraine in Kazakhstan, said that the embassy "would try to help everyone every way it can, regardless of what kind of documents they have." Some people also have Russian passports.

According to him, for the most part, all those who arrive are waiting in line to get a foreign passport.

Quote from Almashi: "In case people provide a passport of a citizen of Ukraine, and they did not abandon the citizenship of Ukraine, then they are citizens of Ukraine. There are a lot of people. My task is to ensure that they have legal documents... We must check everything and, if possible, issue whatever they need: some people get foreign passports, and others get certificates of return. It all depends on what kind of documents they have."

Background:

• In an address to Russians on the morning of 21 September, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the beginning of mobilisation in the country.
• The enlistment campaign was launched in Russian-occupied Crimea as well, and it affected, first of all, the Crimean Tatars. They began to leave the peninsula en masse.

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