Russia forces Ukrainians in occupied territories to take its passports – and fight in its army

He and his parents were among the last in their village to take a Russian passport, but the pressure was becoming unbearable.

By his third beating at the hands of the Russian soldiers occupying Ukraine’s Kherson region, Vyacheslav Ryabkov caved. The soldiers broke two of his ribs, but his face was not bruised for his unsmiling passport photo, taken in September 2023.

It wasn’t enough.

In December, they caught the welder on his way home from work. Then one slammed his rifle butt down on Ryabkov’s face, smashing the bridge of his nose.

“Why don’t you fight for us? You already have a Russian passport,” they demanded. The beating continued as the 42-year-old fell unconscious.

“Let’s finish this off,” one soldier said. A friend ran for Ryabkov’s mother.

Russia has successfully imposed its passports on nearly the entire population of occupied Ukraine by making it impossible to survive without them, coercing hundreds of thousands of people into citizenship ahead of elections Vladimir Putin has made certain he will win, an Associated Press investigation has found. But accepting a passport means that men living in occupied territory can be drafted to fight against the same Ukrainian army that is trying to free them.

assassin_aragorn,

Huh, it’s almost like these regions didn’t want to be independent from Ukraine and are being occupied and controlled by Russia as effective colonies. It seems Putin was never able to move out of an imperialist mindset, but I doubt that’s a surprise to anyone except Russia apologetics.

SomeGuy69,

Of course, that’s why they had to kidnap all these thousands of children.

FreudianCafe,

The comments here are all like https://lemmy.ml/pictrs/image/14ee3a03-dedd-41bf-9151-d8d44e3dcf41.png

PoliticallyIncorrect,
@PoliticallyIncorrect@lemmy.world avatar

deleted_by_moderator

    •
    where_am_i,

    You sign up, you get a rifle, you shoot a barrack full of ruzzkie. Seems like the only way.

    liquidparasyte,

    That can’t weigh well on Ukrainian forces fighting in occupied territories.

    3volver,

    This is actually what the Nazis did during WW2. Russia is a fascist dictatorship.

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkssturm

    en.wikipedia.org/…/Wehrmacht_foreign_volunteers_a…

    mathemachristian,

    Its also what Ukraine is doing right now, so not sure you what your point is.

    fustigation769curtain,

    Is there any evidence to support this claim?

    Argonne,

    His source is Ruzzian media

    DragonTypeWyvern,

    He’s claiming Ukraine conscripting soldiers for defense is the same thing as occupiers forcing people into the military “because they’re Russian citizens.”

    He’s a lying fascist that is pretending not to know it’s a war crime.

    ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/…/article-51

    Argonne,

    I wouldn’t be surprised at all if the Kremlin media was pushing that narrative

    mathemachristian,

    That ukraine is forcing people to serve in its armed forces? I thought that was common knowledge.

    nytimes.com/…/ukraine-military-recruitment.html

    fustigation769curtain,

    No, that Ukraine is forcing captured Russians to fight for them.

    I’m assuming you’re a legit Russian troll, because anyone with at least a 5th grade understanding of English wouldn’t need this spelled out for them.

    Like I say, you’re either playing dumb or you are dumb. Which is it?

    mathemachristian,

    Who is talking about captured russians, Ukraine is forcing russians living in ukraine with ukrainian passports to fight for them, regardless of whether they want to or not. Im baffled at why this is considered controversial its not secret… Maybe underreported, but it seems people here have really bought into the good vs bad narrative anyway and anyone who dares criticize ukraine or st. Zelensky must be a russian troll. The implication being that russian opinions are to be dismissed because of the nationality of the person?

    fustigation769curtain,

    Well, considering the article is about Russians forcing Ukrainians to fight, that’s what rational people would think you meant by “Ukraine is doing the exact same thing.”

    No. Ukraine is not doing “the exact same thing.” Both Ukraine and Russia are forcing their own respective countrymen to fight. Only Russia is forcing Ukrainians to fight for Russia.

    If you had a point, then that would be Ukraine forcing Russians to fight for Ukraine, which isn’t true.

    But I’ve already given you more than you deserve. You are clearly a sad Russian troll who is just doing his best not to get fired.

    Good luck coming up with a response to this, I can’t wait to see how jumbled and illogical it is.

    mathemachristian,

    If you had a point, then that would be Ukraine forcing Russians to fight for Ukraine, which isn’t true.

    But it is? They are literally forcing people no matter their ethnicity or conscientous objections to fight?

    Assman, (edited )
    @Assman@sh.itjust.works avatar

    You talking Russian citizens in Ukraine, or ethnically Russian Ukrainian citizens?

    🤡👇

    mathemachristian,

    Russians with ukrainian passports, like I said 5 comments ago.

    Assman,
    @Assman@sh.itjust.works avatar

    Hey I’m just curious. Wasn’t sure if “has a passport” was the same thing as being a citizen, which I assume would make you eligible for the draft.

    mathemachristian,

    Sorry people here are really hostile. Yeah you must be a citizen of a nation if you want a passport from them.

    profoundninja,

    And is Ukraine forcing unwilling Russians to become Ukrainian citizens?

    mathemachristian,

    Its forcing pro-fed russians to fight

    ABCDE,

    No

    mathemachristian,

    What a rude edit, there really is no point extending good faith in this community it gets thrown right back in your face.

    Psychodelic,

    I mean, what you’re doing is definitely worse than being rude. This goes beyond basic ignorance. You’re being a bad person. You’re demonstrating to all that your parents did a terrible job raising you. Be better or live with the shame forever

    AngryCommieKender,

    There’s nothing “good faith” about your lies

    Madison420,

    Not quite, but my understanding they’re expats and the option was fight or get lost.

    mathemachristian, (edited )

    They arent. ukraine has a large russian minority especially in the east, hence them trying to secede from ukraine and join russia

    Madison420,

    Then those are Ukrainians not Russians though perhaps ethnically they might well be Russian, who cares. Fight for your country or get the fuck out, pretty literally every country at war does this.

    Should we point to how one of the only ways out of Japanese internment camps was if you were useful to the war effort? Should we point to how Russia is forcing passports in occupied areas and then forcing Ukrainians to fight?

    The lines you draw just paint a fucked up picture, you can hedge of you’d like but you’re going to be in the wrong side of history on this one.

    barsoap,

    Ukraine is forcing russians living in ukraine with ukrainian passports to fight for them

    “Belgium is forcing French living in Belgium with Belgian passports to fight for them”.

    Those people are Ukrainians. Russian speakers were the first to volunteer and fight, btw. If you think that speaking a particular language at home means that you want to live in a fascist empire that happens to speak the same language I suggest you check your leftist credentials as they have become null and void.

    Zelensky himself is a native Russian speaker, btw.

    fushuan,

    Ukraine doesn’t allow for double nationality, and has the right to conscript it’s citizens, so even if those people felt Russian,if they got an Ukrainian citizenship, they are bind to that. There’s no fucking chance they are conscripting Russian migrants with Russian nationality and passport.

    Source: my SO had to lose Ukrainian citizenship when she got her citizenship in my home country, even if mine does allow it.

    Zaktor,

    They’re an alt for a hexbear account… so it’s still an open question.

    mathemachristian,

    Other way around my hexbear account is an alt of this one

    Psychodelic,

    Sorry, what’s that mean, or imply?

    Zaktor,

    Hexbear is an instance full of trolls and tankies that’s been defederated from a bunch of instances.

    Womble,

    Exactly which bit of a foreign country is Ukraine occupying and forcing its citizens to fight for them?

    Duamerthrax,

    Probably believes the line about Ukraine always having been a part of Russia and its citizens Russians.

    Womble,

    I looked through their other posts, their answer was “Russians with Ukrainian passports” so literally yes, they think Russian speakers in Ukraine are property of Russia.

    mashbooq,

    Fuck off fascist

    x4740N,
    @x4740N@lemmy.world avatar

    Fascist scum

    RIPandTERROR,
    @RIPandTERROR@sh.itjust.works avatar

    I hope you meet a drone cam

    starman2112,
    @starman2112@sh.itjust.works avatar

    This has to be a joke

    my other account: hexbear.net/u/mathemachristian

    Oh god he’s serious

    Socsa,

    Stop. Get some help.

    fuckingkangaroos,

    More trash from Hexbear, what a surprise.

    itsnotits,

    It’s* also

    Ghostalmedia,
    @Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world avatar

    I assume that an alternative headline would be “War crime aficionado, Vladimir Putin, to shit on Geneva Conventions again by using POWs as a meat shield.”

    andrew_bidlaw,

    thousands of people into citizenship ahead of elections Vladimir Putin has made certain he will win

    With what amount of law exists there, these regions are a holy grail for I doubt anyone even knows how much people are alive and still there. They may use aproximations circa 2013 to get an easy way to add votes. They probably didn’t count locals with a passport in a short period of time after Sept. 2023 if at all.

    It’s weird though that there’s some legalism making them actually get the passport and sign for service themselves. I thought it could be automated. Probably a way to explain their mission here? Look, they take these papers, so we have big numbers to back up the cause and our governor looks pretty on meetings! I’m not sure why’s that so.

    Ghostalmedia,
    @Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world avatar

    The fact that 40% of the US supports this guy is absolutely fucking bonkers.

    kwomp2,

    I’d love some sauce on that Ü

    Ghostalmedia,
    @Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world avatar

    Sauce.

    “Support” might be a strong word, but they don’t view Putin as an enemy.

    pewresearch.org/…/americans-hold-positive-feeling…

    dtjones,

    They don’t condemn Russia or the US leaders that push Putin’s agenda here - that’s how it’s support. How could it be anything else?

    kwomp2,

    To answer that: political view has more options than condemn and support.

    Of course, imo, they should condemn putin, his supporters, trum, biden, scholz, macron and the whole idea of those beeing the options of development of our societies.

    But its not helpfull for us to tune in on 2 dimensional, under-complex concepts of social development/politics

    dtjones,

    I understand your point, but I think the logic you are presenting is what is enabling these people. Ask yourself - what is the nuance in the Ukraine war? Fence sitting, and talking out both sides of your mouth about how we should condemn Putin yet also accept there is nuance to these issues is dangerous. It’s not complicated. If you don’t condemn Putin’s actions, you are implicitly accepting/agreeing that Ukraine should be wiped out.

    Putin relies on the populace accepting that there is “nuance” to the Ukraine war. Russia has conditioned (or at least is trying to condition) the population (in the west) into adopting this logic but the reality is that there is no nuance to this issue. What nuance could there be to an aggressor invading someone’s land?

    kwomp2,

    Have you read that I said “of course they should condemn putin …”?

    What I’m doing is not relativizing the invasion, but the opinions about it.

    It’s a meta level. I’m not talking about nuances of the war, but nuances of political views. The article and the discussion is on that level.

    I agree with your call for clear (and plain coherent/realistic) condemnation of the war. Nevertheless this should not be confused with analyzing how many and how and why people don’t see it that way.

    Otherwise we give up a better understanding of what people think, which we need in order to find strategies to influence the discours on realities terms. (Reality meaning the reality of conciousness(es) about the war, not the war. That part we already agree on)

    Psychodelic,

    Read it back. It kinda seems like all you said was we should criticize both sides, you just listed out leaders instead and hid behind the word, nuance.

    You’re not really saying anything of substance. You’re at risk of being so open-minded your brain’s almost falling out.

    Maybe, you could’ve just said there were very fine people on both sides

    kwomp2,

    Ok imma try to get my point across one more time: There are two different layers of reality about the war.

    Both layers contain meaningful information.

    A bit of info in layer 1: The war is bad.

    A bit of info in layer 2: Not all people see that.

    We agree on both. Now my point is: We should understand the nuances on layer 2.

    Your answer is: “Layer 1 has no nuances”

    The war is not the same thing as the opinions about the war.

    To influence the discourse, i.e. opinions, it’s better to understand the opinions specifically (“in nuances”).

    To close the discrapancy between misguided public opinion and actual reality, we need to understand the opinions, not confuse its object with its (ideologically structured) representation.

    dtjones,

    They are almost certainly a Russian troll. See their comment history.

    kwomp2,

    Support seems to plainly be the wrong word. “Not as an enemy, as a competitor” is definetly not “support”. In my opinion calling it that is more than misleading

    https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/b204cc9d-ce39-450f-917b-7f9564fefd47.jpeg

    kwomp2,

    Oops wrong pic. But I think it also shows how far from this study the claim “30% support putin” is

    https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/56bc50c9-164c-4283-80a2-bb58bb32037f.jpeg

    Psychodelic,

    I mean, I’ve had a couple people parrot the idea that we should be helping Americans instead of helping Ukraine fight against the occupying Russian forces.

    If that isn’t supporting Putin, then what is? Is it only support if you blatantly verbalize your support? That’s like the people that think Americans aren’t racist because we aren’t lynching black and brown people in the streets for community entertainment anymore.

    whotookkarl,
    @whotookkarl@lemmy.world avatar

    They would plead the fifth if they could count that high.

    Vilian,

    a army your own enemy, not gonna backfire at all

    Cannibal_MoshpitV3,

    They dont hand the Ukrainian conscripts any real functioning weapons, if at all. They are used as meat shields and cannon fodder to absorb the limited ammunition Ukraine has.

    BackOnMyBS,
    @BackOnMyBS@lemmy.world avatar

    this is so fucked up

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