Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered Ukrainian citizens in the territory occupied by Moscow to “settle their legal status” or leave by Sept. 10, British officials said over the weekend.
Mr. Putin last week signed a decree mandating that anyone living in the disputed Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, as well as Crimea, must accept Russian citizenship and passports or leave, British military officials posted on X in their latest assessment of the battlefield in Ukraine.
“This is in direct contradiction with Russia’s own stated recognition of Ukraine’s independence and sovereignty following the collapse of the Soviet Union, as well as broader international recognition of Ukraine,” U.K. officials posted.
Mr. Putin is continuing to push a “Russification” policy inside illegally occupied Ukrainian territory as part of the Kremlin’s longstanding efforts to extinguish Ukrainian culture, identity and statehood, British officials said.
