The EU will not recognize Russian passports issued in the occupied territories of Ukraine

EU countries have agreed not to recognize Russian passports issued in Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia. This was announced by the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell following an informal meeting of the EU Council in Prague.

During August, European sources repeatedly reported on the forthcoming decision on this issue. Until now, the EU has not recognized only Russian passports issued to residents of the annexed Crimea.

The day before, the press service of the Russian Defense Ministry reported that since June 11, 8,000 residents of the Zaporozhye region have received Russian citizenship. A total of 35,000 applications were submitted.

On August 11, Vasily Baranenko, the head of the migration service of the Internal Affairs Directorate of Berdyansk, appointed by Moscow, specified that 7,500 citizens had applied for Russian citizenship. In just 2 months, 2.5 thousand passports were issued. Berdyansk belongs to the Zaporozhye region, now about 90 thousand people live in it.

On July 13, the head of the occupation administration of the Kherson region, Volodymyr Saldo, said that since June, 11,400 people have applied for Russian citizenship, and the “queue depth” is 23,000 people. At that time, 1.9 thousand residents of the Kherson region had already received Russian passports. At the same time, his deputy Ekaterina Gubareva announced that 10,000 passports had been issued. As of January 1, 2022, about 1 million people lived in the region.

In June, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation reported that over 800,000 residents of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions received Russian citizenship in 3 years.

On the eve of the US State Department learned that Russia plans to hold “referenda” in the occupied territories of Ukraine in the coming weeks. We are talking about the organization of voting in the “DPR”, “LPR”, Kherson, and also partially Zaporozhye and Kharkiv regions. The occupying authorities have repeatedly stated this intention before, September 11 was called as the date.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned that “referendums” in the occupied Ukrainian territories would cross out the possibility of negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv. Meduza sources close to the Kremlin reported that the plebiscite could be postponed due to the threat of a Ukrainian counteroffensive on Kherson.