On March 20, 2025, Vladimir Putin signed a decree requiring Ukrainian citizens living in Russia or the temporarily occupied territories to “regularize their legal status” by September 10. Anyone who has not applied for or obtained a Russian passport is now threatened with deportation.
This decree applies not only to Ukrainians in Russia, but also to those living in the illegally annexed Ukrainian territories: the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions, as well as Crimea, which was unilaterally declared part of the Russian Federation.
According to the UN, more than 1.2 million Ukrainians have fled to Russia since the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022, many of them forcibly displaced or forced to flee the bombing. According to Ukrainian authorities, some 6 million Ukrainians are still believed to live in the occupied territories. Now these people are forced to choose between accepting Russian citizenship or leaving their homes within six months.
For several months now, civilians living under occupation have been under constant pressure to obtain Russian passports. Without this document, they are unable to work, own property, see a doctor, or receive their pension. In some cases, simply refusing to adopt Russian citizenship can even lead to prison sentences.
This new decree is part of a deliberate strategy of demographic replacement. While Ukrainians are being forced to leave, Russian nationals are settling in the occupied territories, thus changing the composition of the population. This will potentially allow the Russian authorities to organize, as in Crimea in 2014, self-determination referendums intended to legitimize illegal annexations.
This decision will inevitably lead to further mass displacement. It confirms a systematic attempt at ethnic cleansing, aimed at erasing Ukraine, its people, and its culture. This is a war of erasure.
Those responsible for war crimes committed since 2014 must be brought to justice. Ukrainians aspire to a just and lasting peace, which requires recognition of crimes, justice, and an end to impunity.
Source : Courrier international
