Russia’s war in Ukraine
Putin signs decree allowing deportation of Ukrainians from occupied regions of Ukraine
From CNN’s Uliana Pavlova and Olga Voitovych
President Vladimir Putin signed a decree Thursday that allows the deportation of Ukrainian citizens from the territories declared annexed by Russia if they are considered a “national security threat.”
According to the decree published online, residents from the annexed territories in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson who have not taken Russian citizenship will be recognized as foreigners. They could be expelled from Russia if they pose a threat to national security, the decree said, including where residents are allegedly advocating for “a violent change in the constitutional order of the Russian Federation, planning or financing terrorist attacks or extremist crimes.”
Some background: In September 2022, Putin announced Russia would seize of nearly a fifth of Ukraine — which is illegal under international law — in the four regions, some of which are not even under full Russian control. It followed so-called referendums in the regions that were universally dismissed as “shams” by Ukraine and Western nations.
The decree also establishes that Ukrainians living in such areas who do not carry a Russian passport would have to apply for a residence permit. They will have to undergo fingerprint registration and provide a package of documents translated into Russian.
Ukrainian officials have repeatedly said that people living in Russian-occupied areas are being denied services when they don’t hold Russian documents.
Responding to the latest decree, Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, said, “The occupier has seized a part of foreign territory, killed a certain number of civilians, and is forcibly throwing others out of their homes by the thousands. Only because they do not want to become ‘citizens of the country-murderer’…”
“The process of changing the ethnic composition of these territories where Russians are being resettled is taking place. This is an obvious manifestation of the genocidal nature of the war,” Podolyak tweeted.
Remember: In March, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin and a Russian official for an alleged scheme to deport Ukrainian children to Russia.
KAYNAK :MAHSUN IŞIKSOY