The russian dictator vladimir putin's decree, which obliged Ukrainian citizens living in the Ukrainian territory illegally occupied by russia to leave or "settl their legal status" by September 10, is aimed at expelling those of them who refuse to accept russian citizenship.
This is stated in a report by British defence intelligence.
"Putin's decree is almost certainly intended to force the departure from Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory of Ukrainian nationals who refuse to accept Russian passports and citizenship. Putin and the Russian senior leadership continue to prosecute a Russification policy in illegally occupied Ukrainian territory, as part of longstanding efforts to extirpate Ukrainian culture, identity and statehood,” the Ministry of Defence of the United Kingdom said in a statement on X.
British intelligence also points to the illegality of the russian side's recognition of Ukrainian territories as its own.
"Russia erroneously and illegally defines both occupied and unoccupied Ukrainian territory in the Ukrainian oblasts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, as well as Crimea, as being part of the Russian Federation. This is in direct contradiction with Russia's own stated recognition of Ukraine's independence and sovereignty following the collapse of the Soviet Union, as well as broader international recognition of Ukraine," the statement emphasizes.
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