Russians living in Ukraine have begun burning their Russian passports in protest
The State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) records hundreds of cases of burning their Russian passports by citizens living in Ukraine. At the same time, the number of people wishing to renounce Russian citizenship and obtain a Ukrainian passport is growing.
The DBR told the stories of three men who did it in protest against Russia’s actions in Ukraine.
Thus, a 50-year-old resident of Rivne region publicly burned his Russian passport and military ID in protest against the Russian attack and called on other compatriots to do the same.
He was born in Ukraine, but as a child, he moved to Kamchatka with his parents. He lived there most of his life. Furthermore, he served in the army in the Amur region and earned a degree in ordinary radiotelephony.
In 2019, he returned to Rivne region to take care of his old father.
“I do not observe Nazism or fascism here… I condemn President Putin’s criminal orders, I condemn those who carry them out. I do not want to be a citizen of Russia! He is ready to lose his citizenship – the sooner, the better,” – he said.
In Russia, the husband has an 18-year-old son. The whole family is worried that he will be mobilized, because then in fact he has to go to war against his father and grandfather. The man says, ‘It is better for my son to go to prison than to go to war.’
Another case of a burned passport was recorded by the DBR in Chernihiv region.
A resident of Crimea in 2014 after the occupation of the peninsula was forced to issue a ‘red’ passport. But soon after seeing the contemptuous attitude of the Russian leadership towards Ukrainians, he decided to return to his homeland – Chernihiv.
So far, he advises all Ukrainians who have been forced to obtain a Russian passport in the occupied territories to get rid of it.
And he urges Russian soldiers not to follow the criminal orders of their leadership and start thinking ‘on their own.’
“I saw with my own eyes all the atrocities committed by the Russian army here, destroying the infrastructure of peaceful cities, destroying locals, bombing hospitals. In February, I volunteered to go to the military enlistment office to defend my own state,” – he said.
In the Lviv region, a 64-year-old Russian citizen also decided to lose his Russian passport. The man has been living in the region since 1998, working in Russia on a shift basis in the gas industry.
In protest against Russia’s actions in Ukraine, he burned his Russian passport and called on his compatriots living in Ukraine to do the same.
“During the 14 years I have lived in Ukraine, I have not felt any oppression from Ukrainians. I do not want to be a citizen of the country that organized the genocide of the Ukrainian people, so I am destroying my passport,” – he said.
