The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has said that Russian President Vladimir Putin's decree, saying that orphans and children left without parental care and who are citizens of Ukraine can acquire Russian citizenship by his personal decision, regardless of all or individual requirements of the federal legislation, is yet another proof of crime against Ukraine by Russia.
On 4 January 2024, Putin signed a decree "On defining certain categories of foreign citizens and stateless persons who have the right to apply for citizenship of the Russian Federation".
Heads of Russian organizations in which Ukrainian children are forcibly detained can submit an application for their Russian citizenship.
"This another 'normative legal act', in addition to its aim to satisfy the demographic needs of the aggressor country at the expense of migrants in order to continue armed aggression against Ukraine, also grossly violates the legislation of Ukraine, the norms of international law and the rights of children - citizens of Ukraine, who during the large-scale offensive of the Russian Federation were forcibly relocated to the territory of the aggressor state," the Foreign Ministry said.
Such actions violate the norms of international humanitarian law, are null and void and do not create any legal consequences.
"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine once again emphasizes that all children, citizens of Ukraine, who were forcibly relocated to the territory of the Russian Federation under the trumped-up pretext of so-called 'humanitarian protection', remain citizens of Ukraine. The Ukrainian authorities continue to take all possible measures to protect their legal rights and freedoms," it said.
The real value of this decree lies only in the fact that it will serve as another proof of the crimes of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, the forcible assimilation of Ukrainian children and an attempt to deprive them of their own Motherland.
"We call on the International Criminal Court to take into account these actions of the Russian leadership to transfer Ukrainian children from one national group to another, including by forcibly granting them Russian citizenship, which is one of the signs of genocide, and the international community to execute as soon as possible the arrest warrant issued by the ICC against Vladimir Putin, by taking necessary measures of detaining him and transferring to the bodies of international justice," the Foreign Ministry said.