EU develops mechanism for non-recognition of passports of Russian Federation issued to residents of occupied Donbass

Unified recommendations on the identification and possible non-recognition of passports of the Russian Federation issued to residents of CADLO are being developed in the European Union. This is said in a statement by the EU representative, provided by DW on Thursday, August 8.

These recommendations for the EU member states and their consulates are being developed by the European Commission jointly with the European External Action Service and in coordination with the EU delegations in Kyiv and Moscow.

The given instructions will also relate to the issue of issuing visas, a request for which in Russia or Ukraine will be submitted by residents of Donbass with Russian passports. The statement by the EU representative recalls that non-recognition of passports is in the competence of each EU member state.

On June 20, the heads of state and government of the EU expressed "extreme concern" about the April decree of Russian President Vladimir Putin on simplifying the issuance of passports to residents of CADLO. It was noted at the EU summit that such a move "is contrary to the spirit and goals" of the Minsk agreements. At the same time, the European Council announced its readiness to consider further measures, including the non-recognition of such Russian passports, and a DW source in the EU announced the start of work on the relevant procedure.

As previously reported, on April 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin adopted a decree on simplifying the issuance of Russian passports to residents of occupied Donbass. Later he declared that he was ready to give Russian citizenship to all Ukrainians.

However, Putin did not stop there and signed a decree on simplified procedure for obtaining a Russian passport for Ukrainians from occupied Crimea on May 1.

On May 7, the Kremlin came up with yet another way to lure the Ukrainians. Putin issued a decree by which citizens of the entire Donbass can obtain Russian citizenship. Russian media are convincing that now the residents of Donbass can also receive Russian passports.

Ukraine and countries of the civilized world do not recognize such Russian passports, the NSDC is going to introduce national sanctions against Russia.

To obtain a visa to the EU or the USA, the applicant must present the internal passport of citizen of the Russian Federation. Residents of the occupied territories in the Donbass receive Russian documents with the unit code 610-068, created specifically for their "passportization". Thus, such passports can be easily identified and invalidated by the code of the authority that issued them.