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FOCUS: Russia-Ukraine War

Ukrainians In Occupied Territories Are Being Forced To Get Russian Passports

Reports have emerged of children, retirees, and workers being forced by the Russian military and occupying administration to obtain Russian Federation passports, or face prison, beating or loss of public benefits.

Image of a hand holding a red Russian passport.

Russian passport

Iryna Gamaliy

It's referred to as: "forced passportization." Reports are accumulating of police and local authorities in the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine requiring that locals obtain Russian passports. Now new evidence has emerged that Ukrainians are indeed being coerced into changing their citizenship, or risk retribution from occupying authorities.

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Ever since late September, when President Vladimir Putin announced Russia hadd unilaterally annexed four regions in eastern and southern Ukraine (Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson), Moscow has been seeking ways to legitimize the unrecognized annexation. The spreading of Russian passports is seen as an attempt to demonstrate that there is support among the Ukrainian population to be part of Russia.


Ukrainian military sources report Monday that locals in Kherson are threatened with imprisonment, beatings, or denial of social benefits or wages if they don't have a Russian passport at the checkpoints set up by the Russian military.

Children and elderly targeted

Meanwhile, in the occupied part of the Luhansk region, Russians are creating conditions for expediting the issuance of Russian passports to Ukrainian citizens, including minor children.

An application for termination of citizenship for a child under the age of 14 can be submitted.

"According to the recently adopted law, an application for termination of citizenship for a child under the age of 14 can be submitted by one of the parents, the sole parent, or the adoptive parent," the Luhansk Regional Military Administration reports.

For children left without parental care, mainly those permanently in an educational or medical organization providing social services, the application is submitted by a guardian or an authorized representative of such an institution without regard to the child's opinion.

In addition, elderly are forced to obtain Russian passports in order to collect their pension benefits.

"Since March, pensions have been recalculated in the territory," the pro-Russian administration announced. "A person can apply to the relevant authorities only with a Russian passport registered in the region. Passports of Ukraine ... are not accepted. If you do not have time to get a new piece of paper, you cannot wait for the recalculation."

Also, in the occupied city of Melitopol in the Zaporizhzhia region, the occupation forced have banned social services payments to residents who refuse to obtain a Russian passport.

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Society

Italy's Right-Wing Government Turns Up The Heat On 'Gastronationalism'

Rome has been strongly opposed to synthetic foods, insect-based flours and health warnings on alcohol, and aggressive lobbying by Giorgia Meloni's right-wing government against nutritional labeling has prompted accusations in Brussels of "gastronationalism."

Dough is run through a press to make pasta

Creation of home made pasta

Karl De Meyer et Olivier Tosseri

ROME — On March 23, the Italian Minister of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty, Francesco Lollobrigida, announced that Rome would ask UNESCO to recognize Italian cuisine as a piece of intangible cultural heritage.

On March 28, Lollobrigida, who is also Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's brother-in-law, promised that Italy would ban the production, import and marketing of food made in labs, especially artificial meat — despite the fact that there is still no official request to market it in Europe.

Days later, Italian Eurodeputy Alessandra Mussolini, granddaughter of fascist leader Benito Mussolini and member of the Forza Italia party, which is part of the governing coalition in Rome, caused a sensation in the European Parliament. On the sidelines of the plenary session, Sophia Loren's niece organized a wine tasting, under the slogan "In Vino Veritas," to show her strong opposition (and that of her government) to an Irish proposal to put health warnings on alcohol bottles. At the end of the press conference, around 11am, she showed her determination by drinking from the neck of a bottle of wine, to great applause.

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