On July 6, 2023, the President of the Russian Federation signed Decree No. 495 "On some issues related to the specifics of the legal status of citizens of the Russian Federation who hold Ukrainian citizenship", which provides for verification of Ukrainian citizens illegally documented with Russian passports for their actions, aimed at realizing their rights and responsibilities as citizens of Ukraine. 

This "legislative act" is another violation of legal rights of Ukrainians, who were forced to stay in the temporarily occupied territories during the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine or forcibly relocated to the territory of the aggressor state.

In fact, it is another repressive step of the Russian authorities aimed at identifying "unreliable" Ukrainian citizens who, in violation of Ukrainian legislation and international law, were illegally documented with identification documents of the aggressor state. 

Such actions of the authorities of the Russian Federation, from a legal point of view, are null and void and do not entail any legal consequences. Instead, they resemble an attempt to establish an artificial legal basis for intimidation and other means of pressure on them.

Any documents issued in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine are void and have no legal force. The forced issuing of Russian passports to the residents of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine is illegal and does not constitute ground for the loss of Ukrainian citizenship.

Ukrainian citizens living in temporarily occupied territories or forcibly relocated to the territory of the Russian Federation under the trumped-up pretext of so-called "humanitarian protection" will continue to retain Ukrainian citizenship despite any "innovations" of the Russian legislation in this sphere.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs once again emphasizes that all holders of Ukrainian passports who have not gone through the procedure for relinquishing citizenship provided for by Ukrainian legislation, remain citizens of Ukraine and could rely upon the protection of their rights by the Ukrainian state.

We call on the international community to condemn such actions by the Russian Federation and to refrain from recognizing any documents issued by the aggressor state in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.