Russia is forcing Ukrainians in Russian-occupied territories to accept Russian citizenship by engaging in a systematic push “to make it impossible for residents to survive in their homes” unless they do so, according to a newly released report from the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab.
The report details an extensive campaign of both laws from the Kremlin to “streamline applying for a Russian passport while simultaneously threatening those who refuse to apply with detention or deportation,” as well as de-facto restrictions on those who refuse to accept the passports.
The restrictions “include denial of medical services, social benefits, the ability to drive and to work, and overt threats of violence and intimidation,” said the report, which was released Wednesday and produced as a part of the US State Department-backed Conflict Observatory.
The violations detailed in the report “are classic war crimes in the sense that they are restricting or limiting through this process people’s ability to access critical services and resources that Russia is required to allow all people to access, such as healthcare, and humanitarian systems,” Yale Humanitarian Research Lab’s Nathaniel Raymond told CNN Wednesday.
“The second part here is that this is a unique and specific dynamic of the broader campaign by Russia to erase Ukrainian national identity and Ukrainian sovereign state existence,” he said.
Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab has done extensive work looking into Russia’s alleged war crimes, including its program of forced deportation of Ukrainian children – a crime for which the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Now that we are able to share with International Criminal Court, we hope that the information about forced Russian nationalization will assist both…
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