Ukraine's ombudsman opposes mass punishment for obtaining Russian passport in occupied territories

Dmytro Lubinets, Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) Commissioner for Human Rights, opposes mass punishment for Ukrainians who obtained Russian passports during Russia's occupation of Ukrainian territories.

Source: Dmytro Lubinets in an interview with Ukrainska Pravda

Quote: "If citizens of Ukraine remain in the temporarily occupied territory, their main task is to survive there. For them to survive, they probably had to obtain passports as a citizen of the Russian Federation for various reasons.

Believe me, there are a lot of Ukrainian citizens who are there, who publicly sometimes say that the Russian Federation is "good and here for a long time", but, in fact, they are doing an entirely different job, bringing the time of the liberation of these territories closer.

Each fact will then be established, we will make an assessment. We have so many stories where we clearly understand that there is simply no other choice."

Details: At the same time, the ombudsman emphasised that Ukraine does not recognize Russian passports issued in the territories temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation.

Currently, he said, the authorities are considering the possibility of legislatively adopting a special procedure that will allow such people to renounce these "documents" after liberation of these territories in the future.

Under such legislation, Lubinets said, residents of the liberated territories will be able to renew their documents as citizens of Ukraine. However, it will be necessary for them to do so within a certain period of time; otherwise these persons will be considered as those who "consciously made their choice to become citizens of the Russian Federation" and, in this case, they will already face legal responsibility (both administrative and criminal).

Background: Russian "mobile groups" are operating in the occupied territories of southern Ukraine and resort to violence to impose Russian passports on Ukrainians.

On 15 April, the National Resistance Center reported that the invaders are prohibiting Ukrainians who have not obtained a Russian passport from leaving the occupied territories.

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