Minister for Temporarily Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced Persons Vadym Chernysh has said the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine decided to outlaw Russian passports issued to Ukrainian citizens residing in Russia-occupied areas in Ukraine, namely Luhansk and Donetsk regions.
Speaking after a government meeting on Wednesday, he said the decision made by the government also provides for a list of the so-called centers authorized by the Russian Federation to issue passports, according to an UNIAN correspondent.
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"Starting from certain dates, which are indicated in the decision, namely actually from the moment of the decision to issue such passports, all documents issued by these centers will be declared invalid," he said.
Chernysh also said that according to the decision, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would work with international partners on taking a similar measure.
The minister explained how it would be determined that these passports were issued illegally: "This is very simple – the name of the authority that issues them, and you can see in each passport, according to the classification, the number of an institution or authority that issues such documents, i.e. this is a mandatory feature of any document of any country. Therefore, it is very easy to find out."
"These places have been defined so far – the village of Pokrovskoye and the town of Novoshakhtinsk in Russia's Rostov oblast," Chernysh added.
He also said the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine was preparing a list of persons involved in the illegal issue of Russian passports to whom personal sanctions should be applied.
"We know the list of persons who are directly involved in illegal actions to issue passports to Ukrainian citizens, illegal actions to put pressure and make citizens get such documents. We are preparing a list of such Russian officials to whom personal sanctions should be applied in cooperation with international partners," he said.
