According to Russian news agencies, 23 inhabitants of Kherson, city occupied by troops from Moscow, received a Russian passport.
Article written by
Posted
Reading time : 1 min.
The symbol is strong. The Russian forces organized, Saturday, June 11, a ceremony of handing over the first passports to the inhabitants of Kherson. According to Russian news agencies, 23 residents of this city occupied by Moscow troops in southern Ukraine have received Russian passports, a “simplified procedure” permitted thanks to a decree signed at the end of May by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“All our residents of Kherson want to get a passport and citizenship [russe] as quickly as possibleassured during this ceremony Vladimir Saldo, the head of the pro-Russian administration of the region, quoted by the official agency TASS. It’s a new era that opens for us (…) It is the most important document that a person has in his life”. According to pro-Russian authorities in Kherson, the date of the issuance of these first Russian passports was chosen to coincide with the Russia Day holiday, June 12, a holiday celebrating the country’s independence.
The Kherson region was almost entirely conquered by the Russian army at the start of its offensive launched on February 24. The decree signed by the Kremlin at the end of May, authorizing pro-Russian local authorities to issue passports to residents, also concerned the Zaporizhia region partly controlled by Moscow.
Ukraine denounced the establishment of this special procedure, castigating a “flagrant violation” of its territorial integrity. “The Russian presidential decree is legally void and will have no consequences” on “the membership of the inhabitants of the territories temporarily occupied by Russia to Ukrainian citizenship”said the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.