"Passport terror, killing children, wiped out villages": life of Ukrainians under occupation in 2023.

 

2023 was the second year of occupation for part of the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions. The Russian occupation authorities continue to force the local population to obtain Russian passports, but are not satisfied with the pace of this process. In particular, the Center of National Resistance wrote about this at the end of October. According to Ukrainian sources, the reasons for such low activity of the local population are the lack of support for the occupation, the lack of trust in those who began to cooperate with Russia, the low standard of living after the occupation of the region, as well as the expectation of liberation by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

However, the occupation authorities continue to create conditions in which it is almost impossible to get basic services without a Russian passport. In particular, people without a Russian passport may be denied medical care and social services. In addition, they can be detained and taken to the occupying law enforcement authorities, that is, they are subjected to filtering measures. Hard to find or run a business without a Russian passport.

The occupying power plans to complete the procedures for issuing Russian passports to the population of the occupied regions by January 1, 2024, and is currently putting pressure on people in all possible ways, said the mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov. According to him, the occupiers could in the future organize public demonstrations to deport the local population from their homes. The official also reminded that those who are considered foreigners by the occupation authorities must pay a third of their income in taxes.

 

"Passport Terror"

 

"Novosti Azov" talked to some residents of the occupied territories, as well as those who follow what is happening in the occupation, and asked how much the situation there has changed during the almost two years under Russian control.

So Volodymyr Kovalenko, the mayor of Nova Kahovka, in the Kherson region, said that most of the local population left the community when it faced the Russian occupation. There were also those who sided with the new authorities, but the majority of the population had already left for either Crimea or Russia. Those people who are connected by certain life circumstances still stay in Nova Kahovka.

"They are under this terror of passports, which has affected almost all spheres of life - from the hospital to the water supply. During the second year, the occupation authorities did everything to ensure that the absolute majority of people received (passport of the Russian Federation - ed.). Severing ties with Ukraine continues. For example, literally two weeks ago, the so-called ZTI of the occupation authorities. One resident of Nova Kahovka was placed there. And the goal is passport control, list of apartments, who is there, who is not, who has which citizenship. And it is clear that there will be foreclosure or confiscation of the housing of those people who left and left the keys with their neighbors," said Kovalenko.

 

"Strict Front Line"

 

Now Nova Kahovka is the front line, some settlements of the community no longer exist, says the official. This refers to the most distant streets from the left bank of the Dnieper and a number of rural settlements.

"Our famous park is no longer there, there are solid dugouts, everything has been dug up, some trees have been cut down, there are trenches, everything has been mined. This is the Dnieper region, there is nothing to say about Korsunka, it no longer exists as a settlement, they are all cottages - there are seven or eight cooperatives as far as Krinik. This whole territory is a continuous front line, - there is constant shooting, they don't let up and, unfortunately, people die," said Kovalenko.

According to him, the residents of villages located on the front line are under special attention of the Russian army: they are stopped at roadblocks, accused by Ukrainian autonomists.

"A boy born in 2010 was killed recently. His family lived in a cottage near the village of Krinki, Novokakhov territory. They killed a child because they found a phone, there was a picture of some Russian equipment, they shot him in front of his mother. It is not known where the mother is today, because she tried to commit suicide when she saw all this," said the mayor.

 

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The pressure on the locals will only increase due to the continuation of hostilities, as well as due to the upcoming elections for the Russian president, Kovalenko believes. He calls on everyone to try to leave the occupied territory.

 

"Every day getting harder"

 

A resident of the city of Polog, Zaporozhye region, who is currently staying there, on the condition that he remain anonymous for security reasons, told "Novosti iz Azov" that it is becoming increasingly difficult to avoid getting a Russian passport.

"There are many people in the occupied territories who really love their homeland, their Ukraine, speak Ukrainian, think in Ukrainian, read or watch Ukrainian news. But every day it gets harder. Without a Russian passport, you cannot get medical services until the end of this year. The ambulance refuses to come.

Most of the time, a person cannot pass through roadblocks or move from one settlement to another. Because at every checkpoint, every so-called Russian soldier asks for an explanation as to why the person has not yet taken a Russian passport," the interlocutor explains the situation.

He notes that it is extremely difficult to leave a job. Even if you use the services of the operator, there is no guarantee that people will pass the so-called filtering.

"A foreign passport is required to travel through third countries. And through the Sumi region - you have to go through filtering. And this Russian filtering can only be passed by people of pre-retirement or retirement age and disabled people who leave for health reasons. The others are going through very difficult trials. There are carriers and it doesn't matter how much they ask for this departure. But they are not at all a guarantee that the FSB will let you into free Ukraine at the "border", the interlocutor points out.

 

"Loss of one's identity"

 

The situation with medicines and products, compared to the beginning of the year, has improved, says the resident of Pologiva. There are more goods, imported from Crimea and Russia. However, prices are constantly rising, and not everyone can make money. Most, if not all jobs are related to working for the occupiers. Utility workers, sellers, trade experts are at the price. People plant gardens, raise poultry or other livestock - and that's how they survive.

Russian propaganda continues to spread in the occupied territories and in some cases achieves its goal.

 

"Even if people don't read, watch or listen to Russian news, we hear the conversations of our neighbors, the conversations of people who live around. Every day they lose faith in happiness, because people do not see their loved ones, they lose their own identity. And we are very afraid that TOT will continue to remain TOT, because the return, the moral return of people from here, even after the victory, will be extremely difficult," says the interlocutor.

Given the hostilities and the Russian occupation of parts of the southern territories of Ukraine, the editorial office cannot obtain official confirmation of some of the statements made or independently verify them.

 

"Lawlessness reigns"

 

Andrij Marusov, director of the public organization "Archi-Misto" from Mariupol, told "Novosti Azov" that "lawlessness reigns" in the city now. He especially points out that every week on Telegram channels - both pro-Russian and independent - there are reports that someone has been killed, beaten, killed in a traffic accident, raped.

"The Russian army, the police or the so-called guest workers - representatives of migrants from Central Asia, who were brought to Mariupol by the Russian authorities by the tens of thousands - are involved. The Russian administration has begun mass confiscation of property rights of all residents of Mariupol. If you do not have a Russian passport - the risk is very high. You simply won't be able to remodel your property. That's when the so-called nationalization starts to work," says Marusov.

Many people in Mariupol are still homeless, he says. Some people have to live like during battles, sieges, when the whole city was without gas, electricity and generally without a roof over their heads.

"Until now, the entire infrastructure has not been restored. There are micro-districts that are lucky, for example, the 23rd micro-district - it is not badly affected compared to others. But there are areas where none of this has been restored. The eastern quarter, located on the left bank, has actually turned into a desert. Entire blocks of damaged or destroyed buildings were demolished there, and nothing was built in their place. The people who stayed there are actually homeless, without any basic needs," said Marusov.

 

"Back to the Nineties"

 

The city near the Sea of Azov has no prospects, Russia will not develop anything there, Marusov believes. He calls the statements of the occupation authorities about the reopening of factories propaganda.

 

"Nothing will be returned to the level it was at. On the contrary, the remains of metallurgical and mechanical plants are simply stretched into scrap metal and sold. The whole city turned into a bazaar, buy and sell. The same schemes of criminal "crushing" from the late 1990s continued. This is a dead end. You don't have a Russian passport, you are simply condemned not to survival, but to degradation," Marusov stressed.

 

What to expect next year?

 

Mihajlo Sava, an expert of the Ukrainian Center for Civil Liberties, a doctor of political science, believes that next year the Russian occupying authorities will continue the policy of repression against the residents of the occupied regions and pressure on those who do not take Russian passports.

"This is a de facto statement by Ukrainian citizens that they will not take Russian citizenship in the occupied territories as foreigners. There are several Putin decrees in which these plans are already written. That is, from July 1 next year, if a person keeps a Ukrainian passport and does not take a Russian one, he becomes a foreigner and, accordingly, there is a possibility even for the deportation of such people from the occupied territories," said Sava.

Also, Russia will increasingly try to eradicate resistance in these regions and convince the local population to cooperate with the local occupation structures, according to Sava. He emphasizes that propaganda aims to make these people part of Russian society.

"And that means that these people can become collaborators. There is a line that cannot be crossed. A person can continue to live in the occupied territory, he can even take Russian citizenship. But if such a person works in the police, it is already unconditional treason.

This is a huge machine that works everywhere, including the occupied territories. And it works with the goal of creating such a situation in Russian society when both Russian propagandists and the authorities consider that people living in the occupied territories are part of Russian society, so there is not even a hint of the possibility of resistance," the political scientist added.

Russian troops occupied the coastal areas of Zaporozhye, Kherson and Donetsk in the first days and months of the invasion. Warships of the Russian Navy, which provide protection of the land corridor to occupied Crimea, have been transferred to Ukrainian ports on the Sea of Azov.

At the same time, Moscow does not fully control the territory of any Ukrainian region, whose annexation it announced. Significant parts of the Zaporozhye region (especially its center, the city of Zaporozhye), as well as the territories of the Kherson, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions, remain under Kyiv's control.