Russian passportization of Ukrainian citizens in the temporarily occupied territories of the Zaporizhzhia region continues. The MIL Ukraine journalist spoke with a resident of temporarily occupied Melitopol, Ivan (name changed for security reasons), and learned about how the city lives and how passportization takes place.
About how the direct process of obtaining Russian passports takes place and what emotions Ukrainian citizens feel at the same time, Ivan talks with a trembling voice:
“My mother and I received Russian passports on Friday. Before that, I didn’t sleep all night! I took a sedative pill. I was just shaking and – I’m ashamed to admit it – tears were flowing, my heart was pounding, and I also took a heart pill.
So, when we arrived at the passport office, my mother and I were told: “Read the oath!”, and my mother said: “I forgot my glasses…”. I understand that she did not accidentally leave them. She specifically did not take them so as not to read the text of the oath later. Instead, that traitor says: “Well, you are her son, you read!”. She smiles and continues: “Stand up – you will read while standing, and the elderly will sit!”. She turned on the melody of the Russian national anthem on the phone, and to the sounds of that melody it was necessary to read the oath of loyalty to Russia.”
The man shares:
“As for me, when I’m worried, I can read normally, but I can stutter from nerves. This happens from great excitement or anxiety. When I read, my voice cracked, although I didn’t cry, but I often stuttered. And she (collaborator) thought that I could not see or something, so she prompted me with words. In fact, I simply could not pronounce the words properly… and also because the left side of my face is jammed, and the nerve is pinched from the experience.
I tried to read it as quickly as possible, and she (the traitor) then slips the text of the oath to my mother and says: “Read it!”, and my mother calmly says: “I didn’t take my glasses!”. She replied: “Is this your son? Let him read you every two words, and you will repeat.” And this was my encore. I read two words at a time, my mother repeated in a low voice, and already there, on the street, she just started crying… Tears just kept flowing. And I stand next to her, take her by the shoulder and say: “Mom, don’t cry.” I tell her in Ukrainian: “don’t cry, keep quiet”… She couldn’t calm down – we were driving with such feelings, we couldn’t breathe until we got to the car and took the medicine. “Keep our passports away so they don’t get torn, that’s all! And this, – he says, – let it lie!”. We are not traitors, we are not collaborators, we had to do this in order to survive. I myself experienced a complex illness, so I could not expose my mother to a blow and leave her without medical help.”
Ivan adds: without a Russian passport, occupiers refuse to provide medical care, even emergency care. He says that among people he knows, his fiend’s father died because he was not given help during a heart attack without a Russian passport.