Russia ‘systematically’ forcing Ukrainians to accept citizenship, US report finds

Local residents gather to submit documents and apply to become Russian citizens in the then-occupied city of Kherson, Ukraine, in July 2022. One of the posters reads: ‘Russia is here forever.’ Photograph: Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters

Ukrainians living in Russian-occupied territory are being forced to assume Russian citizenship or face retaliation, including possible deportation or detention, a new US report has said.

Yale University researchers found that residents of the Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions were being targeted by a systematic effort to strip them of Ukrainian identity.