2023-11-16 22:23:22
Russia now sees four areas in Ukraine besides Crimea as its own territories: Luhansk and Donetsk have been separatist areas since 2014; at the beginning of the war of aggression in 2022, Zaporizhia and Kherson were annexed, the latter of which has now been recaptured by Ukraine.
A team of journalists from several European public media outlets, under the umbrella of the EBU investigative journalism network, collected on-the-ground reports for months, obtaining first-hand descriptions of life under the occupation. In addition, experts were interviewed and official communications from the Russian authorities were analyzed. Inquiries to Russian authorities remained unanswered.
Systematic repression
According to the United Nations and Russia, up to 11 million people might be living under Russian occupation in Ukraine, although it is not known how many of them have already left the country. The predominantly Ukrainian population lives almost completely cut off from the outside world. Russian authorities control access to international observers and reputable news organizations.
The research paints a picture of systematic repression by Russia: “If you break or ignore the rules, it can be difficult to survive,” the report says. And sticking to the rules also means accepting Russian passports.
Archyde.com/Alexander Ermochenko Ukrainians applying for passports in Kherson during the occupation period
Conscription for men
Forced Russian citizenship has consequences, especially for men. They are then forced to serve in the Russian armed forces. According to a Russian Defense Ministry report, of the 300,000 men mobilized for the “special military operation” in Ukraine in the fall of 2022, 80,000 came from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. It was also reported in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions that recruiting offices there began to summon men of military age.
A law signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in April stipulates that residents who have not acquired citizenship by July 2024 will be considered “foreigners or stateless persons” and can be deported. Those affected report that they were threatened with having to leave the country without their children and sending their children to orphanages.
There is a threat of high treason charges in Ukraine
Conversely, Ukraine also reacted with counter pressure: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj tightened the laws at the beginning of the war to punish activities that are considered high treason or collaboration with the enemy. For those in the occupied territories who remain loyal to Ukraine, this means an almost impossible choice between two evils: opposing the Russian occupiers or risking being accused of collaboration.
Ukraine: Russification is progressing
Russia has occupied large parts of Ukraine; according to the UN, almost eleven million people live under Russian occupation. In fraudulent votes, Moscow annexed the Ukrainian regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. People are forced to accept Russian passports and Ukrainian culture is banned.
This is one of the reasons why the Ukrainian law caused concern among international organizations such as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights – and there is also criticism in Ukraine itself. According to the Ukrainian non-governmental organization Chesno, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office investigated almost 10,000 cases of treason and collaboration between January 2022 and September 2023 – some in the absence of the accused.
Forced naturalization of seniors
The occupiers, in turn, began their “Russification” of the weakest groups: following the instruction to primarily target “citizens with reduced mobility”, Russian officials in military uniforms can be seen on official social media channels, visiting senior citizens in retirement homes and on home visits Applying for and taking fingerprints helps. After the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam in June, the occupying authorities only provided humanitarian aid if you accepted Russian citizenship.
Archyde.com/Murad Sezer An sign promotes “security” through a Russian passport
Insulin only with a Russian passport
According to statements from refugees, only those who are loyal to Russia receive medical help and medication such as insulin. Even death becomes difficult for the residents. “It is impossible to bury a person without permission from the occupying authorities,” said Alexander Samoilenko, head of the Kherson regional council in Ukrainian-controlled territories. “The funeral will be carried out with a Russian passport or refused under some pretext.”
Leonid Remyga, chief physician of Kherson Municipal Hospital, says that during the Russian occupation period from March to November 2022, parents were forced to register their newborns as Russians. According to Remyga, the threat was to refuse diapers and baby food – if that didn’t help, at gunpoint.
more on the subject
Reports of atrocities from “Europe’s largest prison”
Torture and murder
The doctor refused to cooperate. He was arrested in September 2022 and taken to a pretrial detention center, where he said he was a victim of torture himself and also provided medical care to other tortured prisoners. EBU research is not the only one that speaks of systematic persecution, arbitrary arrests, torture and even murders.
A few months ago, the Russian online exile media The Insider reported on such practices in the occupied city of Melitopol. A UN report from late October said Russian authorities were “using widespread and systematic torture” in Ukraine.
Indoctrination and historical revisionism in schools
But the occupiers don’t just use violence: the indoctrination begins with schoolchildren. The new school year began in September with a new history book for the students. It offers a new official account of the Second World War, the Soviet era, and Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and the regions in eastern Ukraine.
IMAGO/SNA/Alexandr Suhov Ukrainian monuments are being demolished, Russian ones with Soviet symbols – here in Mariupol – are being erected
The “special military operation” in Ukraine is described by Putin in the book as “a question of life or death, a question of our historical future as a people.” For Amnesty International it is a “blatant attempt to unlawfully indoctrinate school children.”
For young people aged 16 and over, “basic military training” was integrated into the curricula. For parents who want to protect their children from Russian propaganda, the only option is secret online lessons, but this poses a great risk. If a corresponding app is found on a mobile phone, there is a risk of arrest and prison time, according to the EBU report.
Mariupol as a showcase project
Russia is conducting a different kind of propaganda in Mariupol. Fighting raged there for months in the spring of 2022 before the last Ukrainians had to admit defeat in the Azov steel plant. Russia is now trying to rebuild the city at lightning speed. Parades are held and Russian influencers are carted into the city to send colorful images back home.
AP/Alexei Alexandrov Propaganda show in Mariupol
The highest priority is the reconstruction of the Mariupol Theater. It was the scene of one of the deadliest individual Russian attacks of the war, in which hundreds of people died, buried under the rubble of a building used as a shelter with the word “children” written in large Russian letters.
TOPOS
Mariupol: Russia’s propaganda hits war victims hard
A new troupe of actors from Saint Petersburg will now play in the house. For displaced residents of the city, Russian ambitions are difficult to bear, topos.ORF.at also recently reported.
War crimes and genocide?
The US historian and Russia expert Timothy Snyder speaks of war crimes – and genocide. “On a legal level, the effort to turn Ukrainians into Russians is genocide,” says Snyder: “Denying that another group of people has their own identity or even exists, and then using political power to make them members of one.” Doing this to another group is clearly genocide. So we can call it Russification, but legally it is genocide.”
Legal experts interviewed by the EBU research team are more cautious: “The legal definition is quite narrow,” says William Schabas, professor of international and humanitarian law at Middlesex University in London.
1700174931
#Occupied #Ukraine #territories #Russian #passport #survival #insurance
