Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubynets said that the order of Russian President Vladimir Putin to grant Russian citizenship to Ukrainian children is one of the signs of genocide. He wrote about this in his telegram channel.
On January 4, Putin signed decree No. 11 On determining certain categories of foreign citizens and stateless persons who have the right to apply for citizenship of the Russian Federation. It notes that all Ukrainian children left without guardianship can obtain Russian citizenship by Putin’s personal decision without taking into account all or individual requirements of federal legislation. An application for such citizenship can be submitted by the heads of Russian organizations in which the child is placed under supervision.
At the same time, according to the Ombudsman, when filling out the questionnaire, information about the applicant’s place of residence or his contact information is not indicated, but only the address and contacts at the place of work of such an applicant, who may disappear at any time.
“I believe that assigning Russian citizenship to children is done so that deported Ukrainian children do not legally remain on their territory”,- said the Ukrainian ombudsman.
He added that in this way Putin could approve citizenship applications from Russian guardians of deported Ukrainian children without any requirements.
“We understand the dire consequences of such actions, because the next step after they receive Russian citizenship will be the adoption of children as Russians, and after that – changing their personal data. At one point, it may happen that not a single Ukrainian child will remain in the Russian Federation, because all of them can become Russians within the next 3 months”,- Lubynets emphasized.