Beneath a portrait of Putin, some Ukrainians embrace Russian passports

Local residents stand below a portrait of Russia's President Vladimir Putin as they go through a procedure to acquire the Russian citizenship and passport at an interior ministry office during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the city of Kherson, Ukraine, on July 25, 2022KHERSON, Ukraine - As the Soviet-era melody of the Russian national anthem filled the room, a small group of Ukrainians in this city seized by Russian troops nearly five months ago swore allegiance to Moscow before being handed...

Russian-installed officials say more than 2,300 Russian passports have been handed out and more than 11,000 applications lodged in what Ukraine and the White House say is an illegal effort by Moscow to annex territory it has occupied as part of what they regard as an imperialist Russian land grab. Russian-installed officials say they plan a referendum, possibly in September, in which they expect the region to vote to become part of Russia. Ukraine says that vote, if it happens, will be illegitimate. It wants to take the area back by force.For now though, the Russian flag flies above the main administration building in Kherson with a Russian armoured truck parked nearby for security.

Demand for Russian passports was very low, he said, and "not mainstream among the local population" but some elderly people felt obliged to get passports in order to access humanitarian aid. Kyiv was unlikely to punish people it perceived were forced to get Russian passports, said Nikolenko, though a new law might target Ukrainians who had got them in order to get jobs in the Russian-installed administration.Prospective Russian citizens are processed at the rate of around 300 per day in 11 passport centres across the region where they queue to hand in their documents, which often include Soviet-era birth documents, say Russian-installed officials.

Sitting opposite the passport office on a bench, a man who only gave his name as Pedro said he had applied to get a Russian passport. He said the region was going through a difficult transitional period which might last six months, but that he was looking forward to the prospect of a Russian pension."Maybe we'll live long enough to see a good moment in life when people will smile and sing songs," said Pedro.

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