After deportation, Russia began passportization. The aggressor country has already issued 12,000 passports to Ukrainians forcibly deported.
Ombudsman Lyudmila Denisova reported this on Facebook.
"Following the forced deportation there’s forced passportization. The Russian Federation has begun to issue passports to citizens of Ukraine, who were forcibly deported to different regions of the aggressor country," - wrote Denisova.
According to her, by intimidating the most vulnerable categories of people: women, people with disabilities and pensioners, the aggressor's government got from them almost 14 thousand applications for Russian citizenship and issued 12 thousand passports.
"Such actions of the RF occupier are aimed at continuing the forced integration of the population of our state into Russia's political, economic and humanitarian sphere,"- Denisova said.
She stressed that forced passportization is illegal and not recognized in Ukraine, it contradicts the principles and norms of international law and is a direct violation of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War.
Earlier Denisova reported that almost 40,000 residents of Mariupol were deported to Russia or the occupied territory of Donbass. Counting deportees is complicated by the fact that Ukrainian documents are confiscated from people.
Russia has also set up a camp in the Penza region of Russia to keep more than 400 Mariupol residents forcibly deported from Ukraine.