Danilov: Russian passportization in eastern Ukraine bogs down

“There are different statistical data [number of passports]. We have a figure of 630,000, we have a figure of 740,000. There are also people who, so to speak, apply [for passports]. A lot of people make applications and then do not go to get this passport. This is such a tourism industry. Not all [passports] are issued in Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Some are taken to Rostov region [in Russia]. To date, the passportization has bogged down, it is not as active as before,” Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksiy Danilov said at a briefing following the NSDC meeting on September 17, an Ukrinform correspondent reported.

He also compared passports issued to residents of the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories with the Ausweis cards issued during World War II at Hitler's initiative. “They get these Ausweis cards. Hitler, you know, issued them for people to survive. The same Ausweis cards are issued in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, many of them were once issued in Crimea. The fact is that a person has no possibility of existence if he or she does not have this piece of paper,” the NSDC Secretary emphasized.

Russia's passportization of the population in eastern Ukraine is a very "sensitive situation", so the Ukrainian authorities are approaching this issue very cautiously, he added.

As reported, the European Union condemns the mass expedited issuance of Russian passports to Ukrainian citizens.

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