How the occupiers are forcing Ukrainians to change their citizenship
Since the start of the war, Russia has pursued an aggressive policy towards the Ukrainian population in the occupied territories. First and foremost, the Russians have done everything to force Ukrainians to change their citizenship. Now they have also reached the children.
The Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union talks about a new bill in the State Duma that deals with "SWO children" and promises them benefits.
January-February of this year (2023-editor) characterized the fact that the aggressor country at the legislative level started to actively implement a policy of "denazification" of Ukrainians in the occupied territories. This is done primarily through passing laws and decrees affecting people's enjoyment of their social and economic rights: right to work, pension security, right to education, etc. - writes Aksana Filippishina, deputy head of the analytical department of the UCPHR.
Russia puts Ukrainian citizens before an unrealistic choice. First by taking away people's opportunity to exercise their rights and then by generously promising many opportunities. But only to those who have Russian citizenship.
As reported, on 17 February 2023, Russian MPs of the LDPR party submitted to the State Duma a draft law "On Children of Special Military Operation". The authors call this draft a law on "children of SVO".
This document defines the categories of children who are proposed to be included as "children of special military operations," the procedure for defining the territories to which the law applies, and the procedure for introducing benefits for children. No specific benefits for children are provided, however.
It is assumed that the amount and types of support will be determined by the government and municipalities and will be provided to Russian children on the basis of a certificate. But the explanatory memorandum suggests that implementation of the law will not require additional expenditures from the federal budget," says Aksana Filipshina.
The distribution area of the law is also interesting: the status of "SVO children" is proposed to be granted to "all citizens of the Russian Federation under eighteen years of age residing in the territories of Ukraine, Donetsk People's Republic and Lugansk People's Republic from February 24, 2022, and territories of Zaporozhe Region and Kherson Region from September 30, 2022, as well as territories of municipal units of Crimea, Krasnodar Region, Belgorod, Bryansk, Voronezh, Kursk, and Rostov Regions which were subjected to systematic cruel and degrading treatment.
Aksana Filipshina believes that this draft law will be adopted because it is often mentioned in Russian media at different levels. She also calls it political agony.
Why now? The intensification of the adoption of "tempting" laws is not accidental in time. After all, because of the occupation of Crimea all traces of legislative changes were prepared and tested. Therefore, the aggressor country could launch everything earlier. It seems that this is a matter of political agony amid fears of a counterattack by the AFU, growing discontent of the population in the occupied territories, falling support for the Russian authorities among Russians, etc. For the same reason, perhaps, they touched their own territories to somehow smooth the sludge of the clap, - p