ロシア占領地で強制されるパスポート取得　ウクライナ

【キーウＡＦＰ＝時事】ロシア軍が占領したザポリージャ市から脱出する直前、ビクトリアさん（４３）は「ウクライナ市民として」絶対に欲しくなかったロシアのパスポートを申請すべきかどうか、苦渋の選択を迫られた。（写真はウクライナの身分証明証を見せるビクトリアさん。同国南部ザポリージャで）
　ロシアのパスポートがなければ、書類の申請手続きはできないと占領軍からは言われ、戸別訪問による検査時に取得していないとロシアへ強制送還されるといううわさも聞いた。
　「ロシアのパスポートを取得したとしても、私はウクライナ人。私は何も変わらない」とビクトリアさんはＡＦＰに語った。
　ウクライナのうち２０１４年にロシアに併合された南部クリミア半島と、親ロシアの分離派が実効支配する東部ドンバス地方では、以前からロシアのパスポートが発行されていた。
　だが昨年２月のウクライナ侵攻開始以来、ロシアのパスポート取得を促す動きは徐々に活発化してきた。ＡＦＰが取材した専門家や住民は、給付金の受け取りから就職や雇用契約の更新、医療機関の受診まで、日常生活のさまざまな場面でロシアのパスポートが必要だと語った。
　ウラジーミル・プーチン大統領は４月、ウクライナの占領地域の住民に対し、来年７月１日までにロシアの市民権を取得しなければ追放処分を認める法令に署名した。
　占領地域に住むアリョーナさん（４０）は「パスポートオフィスには行列ができている。友人は朝８時に行って、すでに４８人待っていた。夜のうちから並び始める」とＡＦＰに語った。
　ロシアがウクライナの占領地域で発行したパスポートの数を正確に把握するのは難しい。また実際に取得を希望するウクライナ人に渡った数を突き止めるのはさらに難しい。
　ロシア側は昨年９月にウクライナ南・東部４州の併合を主張して以降、８万通のパスポートを発行したと１１月に発表している。
　■「ウクライナのアイデンティティーを抹殺」
　人道支援団体などは、ウクライナ人住民によるロシアのパスポート取得は、ハームリダクション（危害削減）の一環だとする見解を示している。
　そうした団体の一つ、ドンバスＳＯＳのミハイロ・フォメンコ弁護士は「大多数の人々が脅迫や暴力の影響下で（ロシアの）パスポートを受け取ったことは分かっている」としつつ、「すべてが終われば（ロシアの）パスポートは生活から消え、忘れ去られるだろう」と述べた。
　しかし、申請者が提出した指紋や写真、家族情報などはパスポートの発行後も長期間、ロシア側に残る。これはロシアの治安機関にとって好都合だ。
　そうした情報はロシア側の徴兵用の予備リストにもなり得る。専門家によれば、それはすでに起きている。
　またロシア側のパスポート発行は実生活への影響以外に、発行そのものが本質的に攻撃だとする見方もある。ウクライナの人権団体「ズミナ」の幹部は「ロシアはウクライナのアイデンティティーを抹殺しようとしている」と述べた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2023/05/30-16:49）

Before fleeing occupied Ukraine, Victoria was getting squeezed to apply for a Russian passport she said she never wanted as I'm a citizen of Ukraine.
Soldiers in the street warned her to get one, she could not file key paperwork without it, and she heard stories of door-to-door checks ending in deportation for people lacking Russian papers.
Moscow has been steadily imposing its passports in an effort to justify its occupation and tighten control, but also to undermine Ukrainian identity, experts said.
I absolutely didn't want to do it, 43-year-old Victoria, speaking on condition her full name not be used, told AFP in Ukraine-held Zaporizhzhia.
But she relented when she needed to register a home and car deed -? transactions for which Moscow-installed authorities demanded Russian documents.
She began getting the required Russian translations of her Ukrainian marriage and birth certificates, but left the process unfinished when she fled eastern Ukraine in January.
Even if I got a Russian passport, I would still remain Ukrainian. For me, nothing would change, she said.
Russia had for years been issuing passports to Ukrainians in the eastern Donbas areas held by pro-Moscow separatists as well as annexed Crimea.
- 'Start queueing at night' -
But since President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion 15 months ago, the passport drive has gradually become more aggressive.
An array of routine necessities such as receiving government benefits, getting or keeping a job and seeking medical treatment require Russian-issued papers, experts and residents told AFP.
Putin in April even signed a decree that allows Ukrainians in occupied areas to potentially be deported if they do not get a Russian passport by July 1, 2024.
There are queues at the passport offices, 40-year-old Alyona, who spoke on condition her full name not be used, told AFP from occupied Ukraine.
My friends went recently and by 8 am there were already 48 people waiting for the passport office to open. People start queueing up at night.
Alyona, who lives in the Donetsk region, said she got a passport from pro-Russian separatists in 2020 but it essentially sat unused over the next three years.
Now a Russian passport is needed everywhere, the shop worker added.
It's difficult to say exactly how many passports Russia has issued in occupied Ukraine, and even more difficult to say how many of those went to willing recipients.
Moscow released a figure in late November of 80,000 passports given out just since Putin had claimed to have annexed four Ukrainian territories in September.
The governor of the eastern Lugansk region, Sergei Gaidai, told AFP the passports were used by Moscow to try to support its claim of invading Ukraine to protect Russian speakers.
However, he added the passports were more or less optional in the first months of the occupation, but have since become compulsory.
A person who received a Russian passport, who was forced to receive it, and a person who received it voluntarily are different situations, he added.
- 'Erase Ukrainian identity' -
Humanitarian groups have taken a harm-reduction stance on the issue, saying people need to survive and sometimes Russian passports are part of that.
We know that the vast majority of these individuals still received them under the influence of threats, under the influence of violence, said Mykhailo Fomenko, a lawyer with Donbas SOS aid group.
When it's all over, these passports will be removed from our lives and forgotten, he added.
Yet long after the documents are issued, the fingerprints, photos and family information collected from applicants will remain in Russia's possession, in a boon for its security apparatus.
The information also serves as a ready-made list for drafting men into Russia's war effort, which experts say has already happened.
Despite Russia blocking access to vital services for those without its passports, there are things that cannot be done with them.
The European Union said it would not recognise Russian passports issued in regions of Ukraine annexed by Moscow.
The move -- which also covers two Kremlin-controlled areas of Georgia -- means Russian travel documents given to residents of those regions cannot be used to get visas or to enter the Schengen zone.
Their utility in Russia is also in question, said the Lugansk governor Gaidai.
We have many examples when people who received a passport in occupied Lugansk, then went to Russia and had problems, for example, with trying to get a mortgage, he noted.
Regardless of practical implications of the passports, their very issuance is seen by some advocates as a fundamental attack.
They want to erase Ukrainian identity, said Alena Lunova, advocacy manager at Ukrainian human rights group Zmina.