Russia has successfully imposed its passports on nearly the entire population of occupied Ukraine by making it impossible to survive without them.

He and his parents were among the last in their village to take a Russian passport, but the pressure was becoming unbearable.

By his third beating at the hands of the Russian soldiers occupying Ukraine’s Kherson region, Vyacheslav Ryabkov caved. The soldiers broke two of his ribs, but his face was not bruised for his unsmiling passport photo, taken in September 2023.

It wasn’t enough.

In December, they caught the welder on his way home from work. Then one slammed his rifle butt down on Ryabkov’s face, smashing the bridge of his nose.

“Why don’t you fight for us? You already have a Russian passport,” they demanded. The beating continued as the 42-year-old fell unconscious.

“Let’s finish this off,” one soldier said. A friend ran for Ryabkov’s mother.

Russia has successfully imposed its passports on nearly the entire population of occupied Ukraine by making it impossible to survive without them, coercing hundreds of thousands of people into citizenship ahead of elections Vladimir Putin has made certain he will win, an Associated Press investigation has found. But accepting a passport means that men living in occupied territory can be drafted to fight against the same Ukrainian army that is trying to free them.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    31·
    9 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    Russia has successfully imposed its passports on nearly the entire population of occupied Ukraine by making it impossible to survive without them, coercing hundreds of thousands of people into citizenship ahead of elections Vladimir Putin has made certain he will win, an Associated Press investigation has found.

    Every passport and birth certificate issued makes it harder for Ukraine to reclaim its lost land and children, and each new citizen allows Russia to claim a right – however falsely – to defend its own people against a hostile neighbor.

    AP spoke about the system to impose Russian citizenship in occupied territories to more than a dozen people from the regions, along with the activists helping them to escape and government officials trying to cope with what has become a bureaucratic and psychological nightmare for many.

    If a passport was issued after that time – it was most certainly forced,” said Oleksandr Rozum, a lawyer who left the occupied city of Berdyansk and now handles the bureaucratic gray zone for Ukrainians under occupation who ask for his help, including property records, birth and death certificates and divorces.

    The international organization Physicians for Human Rights documented at least 15 cases of people being denied vital medical care in occupied territories between February 2023 and August 2023 because they lacked a Russian passport.

    Dina Urich, who arranges the escapes from occupied territory with the aid group Helping to Leave, said about 400 requests come in each month, but they only have the money and staff for 40 evacuations.

    The original article contains 2,263 words, the summary contains 254 words. Saved 89%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

    • Cannibal_MoshpitV3@lemmy.worldEnglish
      27·
      9 months ago

      They dont hand the Ukrainian conscripts any real functioning weapons, if at all. They are used as meat shields and cannon fodder to absorb the limited ammunition Ukraine has.

        • Prophet@lemmy.worldEnglish
          53·
          9 months ago

          They don’t condemn Russia or the US leaders that push Putin’s agenda here - that’s how it’s support. How could it be anything else?

          • kwomp2@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            21·
            9 months ago

            To answer that: political view has more options than condemn and support.

            Of course, imo, they should condemn putin, his supporters, trum, biden, scholz, macron and the whole idea of those beeing the options of development of our societies.

            But its not helpfull for us to tune in on 2 dimensional, under-complex concepts of social development/politics

            • Prophet@lemmy.worldEnglish
              21·
              9 months ago

              I understand your point, but I think the logic you are presenting is what is enabling these people. Ask yourself - what is the nuance in the Ukraine war? Fence sitting, and talking out both sides of your mouth about how we should condemn Putin yet also accept there is nuance to these issues is dangerous. It’s not complicated. If you don’t condemn Putin’s actions, you are implicitly accepting/agreeing that Ukraine should be wiped out.

              Putin relies on the populace accepting that there is “nuance” to the Ukraine war. Russia has conditioned (or at least is trying to condition) the population (in the west) into adopting this logic but the reality is that there is no nuance to this issue. What nuance could there be to an aggressor invading someone’s land?

              • kwomp2@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
                1·
                9 months ago

                Have you read that I said “of course they should condemn putin …”?

                What I’m doing is not relativizing the invasion, but the opinions about it.

                It’s a meta level. I’m not talking about nuances of the war, but nuances of political views. The article and the discussion is on that level.

                I agree with your call for clear (and plain coherent/realistic) condemnation of the war. Nevertheless this should not be confused with analyzing how many and how and why people don’t see it that way.

                Otherwise we give up a better understanding of what people think, which we need in order to find strategies to influence the discours on realities terms. (Reality meaning the reality of conciousness(es) about the war, not the war. That part we already agree on)

                • Psychodelic@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  11·
                  9 months ago

                  Read it back. It kinda seems like all you said was we should criticize both sides, you just listed out leaders instead and hid behind the word, nuance.

                  You’re not really saying anything of substance. You’re at risk of being so open-minded your brain’s almost falling out.

                  Maybe, you could’ve just said there were very fine people on both sides

        • kwomp2@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          32·
          9 months ago

          Support seems to plainly be the wrong word. “Not as an enemy, as a competitor” is definetly not “support”. In my opinion calling it that is more than misleading

          • kwomp2@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            41·
            9 months ago

            Oops wrong pic. But I think it also shows how far from this study the claim “30% support putin” is

            • Psychodelic@lemmy.worldEnglish
              21·
              9 months ago

              I mean, I’ve had a couple people parrot the idea that we should be helping Americans instead of helping Ukraine fight against the occupying Russian forces.

              If that isn’t supporting Putin, then what is? Is it only support if you blatantly verbalize your support? That’s like the people that think Americans aren’t racist because we aren’t lynching black and brown people in the streets for community entertainment anymore.

  • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.worldEnglish
    23·
    9 months ago

    Huh, it’s almost like these regions didn’t want to be independent from Ukraine and are being occupied and controlled by Russia as effective colonies. It seems Putin was never able to move out of an imperialist mindset, but I doubt that’s a surprise to anyone except Russia apologetics.

  • andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    5·
    9 months ago

    thousands of people into citizenship ahead of elections Vladimir Putin has made certain he will win

    With what amount of law exists there, these regions are a holy grail for I doubt anyone even knows how much people are alive and still there. They may use aproximations circa 2013 to get an easy way to add votes. They probably didn’t count locals with a passport in a short period of time after Sept. 2023 if at all.

    It’s weird though that there’s some legalism making them actually get the passport and sign for service themselves. I thought it could be automated. Probably a way to explain their mission here? Look, they take these papers, so we have big numbers to back up the cause and our governor looks pretty on meetings! I’m not sure why’s that so.

  • Ghostalmedia@lemmy.worldEnglish
    401·
    9 months ago

    I assume that an alternative headline would be “War crime aficionado, Vladimir Putin, to shit on Geneva Conventions again by using POWs as a meat shield.”

      • Womble@lemmy.worldEnglish
        91·
        9 months ago

        Exactly which bit of a foreign country is Ukraine occupying and forcing its citizens to fight for them?

        • Duamerthrax@lemmy.worldEnglish
          8·
          9 months ago

          Probably believes the line about Ukraine always having been a part of Russia and its citizens Russians.

          • Womble@lemmy.worldEnglish
            10·
            9 months ago

            I looked through their other posts, their answer was “Russians with Ukrainian passports” so literally yes, they think Russian speakers in Ukraine are property of Russia.

          • fustigation769curtain@lemmy.worldEnglish
            513·
            9 months ago

            No, that Ukraine is forcing captured Russians to fight for them.

            I’m assuming you’re a legit Russian troll, because anyone with at least a 5th grade understanding of English wouldn’t need this spelled out for them.

            Like I say, you’re either playing dumb or you are dumb. Which is it?

            • Zaktor@sopuli.xyzEnglish
              222·
              9 months ago

              They’re an alt for a hexbear account… so it’s still an open question.

            • mathemachristian[he]@lemm.eeEnglish
              276·
              9 months ago

              Who is talking about captured russians, Ukraine is forcing russians living in ukraine with ukrainian passports to fight for them, regardless of whether they want to or not. Im baffled at why this is considered controversial its not secret… Maybe underreported, but it seems people here have really bought into the good vs bad narrative anyway and anyone who dares criticize ukraine or st. Zelensky must be a russian troll. The implication being that russian opinions are to be dismissed because of the nationality of the person?

              • fustigation769curtain@lemmy.worldEnglish
                352·
                9 months ago

                Well, considering the article is about Russians forcing Ukrainians to fight, that’s what rational people would think you meant by “Ukraine is doing the exact same thing.”

                No. Ukraine is not doing “the exact same thing.” Both Ukraine and Russia are forcing their own respective countrymen to fight. Only Russia is forcing Ukrainians to fight for Russia.

                If you had a point, then that would be Ukraine forcing Russians to fight for Ukraine, which isn’t true.

                But I’ve already given you more than you deserve. You are clearly a sad Russian troll who is just doing his best not to get fired.

                Good luck coming up with a response to this, I can’t wait to see how jumbled and illogical it is.

                • mathemachristian[he]@lemm.eeEnglish
                  253·
                  9 months ago

                  If you had a point, then that would be Ukraine forcing Russians to fight for Ukraine, which isn’t true.

                  But it is? They are literally forcing people no matter their ethnicity or conscientous objections to fight?

                • mathemachristian[he]@lemm.eeEnglish
                  218·
                  9 months ago

                  They arent. ukraine has a large russian minority especially in the east, hence them trying to secede from ukraine and join russia

              • Fushuan [he/him]@lemm.eeEnglish
                12·
                9 months ago

                Ukraine doesn’t allow for double nationality, and has the right to conscript it’s citizens, so even if those people felt Russian,if they got an Ukrainian citizenship, they are bind to that. There’s no fucking chance they are conscripting Russian migrants with Russian nationality and passport.

                Source: my SO had to lose Ukrainian citizenship when she got her citizenship in my home country, even if mine does allow it.

              • barsoap@lemm.eeEnglish
                16·
                9 months ago

                Ukraine is forcing russians living in ukraine with ukrainian passports to fight for them

                “Belgium is forcing French living in Belgium with Belgian passports to fight for them”.

                Those people are Ukrainians. Russian speakers were the first to volunteer and fight, btw. If you think that speaking a particular language at home means that you want to live in a fascist empire that happens to speak the same language I suggest you check your leftist credentials as they have become null and void.

                Zelensky himself is a native Russian speaker, btw.