Ukrainians who received Russian passports in TOT remain citizens of Ukraine, - Head of SMS Naumenko
Ukraine does not recognize the forced passportization carried out by Russia in the occupied territories. This is stated in the law.
This was stated by the head of the State Migration Service, Natalia Naumenko, in an interview with Censor.NET.
"All citizens who lived there at the time of the occupation are citizens of Ukraine. Their children born there are also citizens of Ukraine.
They may be questioned by law enforcement agencies regarding collaboration activities. But that is a different story. It has nothing to do with citizenship. People living in temporarily occupied territories have been and will remain citizens of Ukraine. And the state recognizes them as its citizens," she explained.
Naumenko noted that there are people who obtained Russian passports because they could not survive otherwise under occupation.
"But if a person has obtained a Russian passport and supports Russia in this aggressive war, approves of the attack on Ukraine, works in the occupation authorities, then there will be questions for them. If their actions after obtaining a Russian passport pose a threat to Ukraine's national security, and this is established by the special services, this may be grounds for losing Ukrainian citizenship. Because in this case, you did not receive the passport by force, but voluntarily and consciously took it. And now you support the Russian Federation as a state that has attacked the territory of Ukraine," added the head of the State Migration Service.
At the same time, there is no question of automatic deprivation of citizenship.
"There are appropriate procedures—evidence is gathered, conclusions are drawn, etc. Only then is a decision made on the loss of citizenship. In the vast majority of cases, we understand that people obtained these documents purely in order to survive. Quite often, we receive appeals from people through the Human Rights Commissioner or to our email, saying that they were forced to obtain Russian passports and asking us to consider this as forced passportization," Naumenko continued.
If a person left for Russia and obtained a Russian passport there
"Here, voluntariness is clearly evident, so it's a completely different story. You didn't just leave and get a passport, you went through a procedure. During the occupation, there was simply mass passportization without following the procedure for becoming a citizen of the Russian Federation, and you were forced to automatically obtain a passport. And when you arrive in the Russian Federation and want to obtain a passport there, you must consciously submit an application stating that you are requesting Russian citizenship. This is what happened, for example, with Ani Lorak. She went through the procedure of obtaining Russian citizenship," replied the head of the State Migration Service.
Read the full interview with Natalia Naumenko, Head of the State Migration Service, at link.
