The occupying country is trying to find new tools to exert psychological pressure on Ukrainian citizens from the occupied Crimea and the temporarily occupied regions of Ukraine. This time, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs wants to get the right to check Ukrainians who were forcibly issued occupation passports to see if they are exercising their rights as citizens of Ukraine.

The Russian ministry has published a draft decree by Putin, which is supposed to supplement the so-called law with defined “grounds for termination” of Ukrainian citizenship without Ukraine’s consent. According to the so-called law, a person must fill out a special form and undertake not to take actions related to the rights and obligations of Ukrainian citizens. In case of violation of this obligation, the draft law provides for forceful checks and conclusions about the citizen by the security forces of the terrorist country.

Dear citizens of Ukraine, we urge you not to sign any forms of the terrorist country and remind you to do so:

• Ukrainian legislation does not provide for criminal liability for being a victim of forced passportization by an aggressor country;
• At the same time, Article 45 of the Regulations on the Laws and Customs of War on Land, which is an annex to the IV Hague Convention relative to the Laws and Customs of War on Land, prohibits forcing residents of the occupied territory to swear allegiance to the aggressor state;
• documents for renunciation of Ukrainian citizenship can be officially submitted only at the foreign diplomatic missions of Ukraine in other countries or at the relevant state bodies of Ukraine, and such documents are also reviewed by the Presidential Commission on Citizenship. The final decision on the termination of citizenship is made by the President of Ukraine;
• if you refuse to sign the so-called “special form” of the Russian Federation, you will not be held liable. This is just another psychological pressure of the aggressor country on the citizens of Ukraine.

We reiterate that Ukraine has never recognized and will never recognize occupation passports. Our people who have been victims of forced passportization in the occupied territories remain citizens of Ukraine, retaining their rights and obligations.

We call on our citizens in the occupied territories not to believe another Russian propaganda narrative aimed at intimidating and persecuting Ukrainians and representatives of the indigenous peoples of Ukraine.