In the occupied territories, citizens of Ukraine were forced to accept Russian citizenship under the threat of losing their property. By doing so, they were legally forced to declare themselves ethnically Russian, because the Russian Federation does not recognize ethnic Ukrainians as a separate people or legal category.

Obtaining a Russian passport was not merely a change of citizenship — it constituted a forced declaration of Russian ethnic identity. From a legal standpoint, ethnic Ukrainians cease to exist as a distinct ethnic community and are reclassified as ethnic Russians.

Under the Constitution of Ukraine (Article 13), land, subsoil, natural resources, and even atmospheric air are collectively owned by the Ukrainian people. The corresponding proprietary rights belong to the Ukrainian people, but not to the state. This makes Ukraine unique among post-Soviet and European countries, as collective ownership is legally assigned to the Ukrainian people in the collective legal sense.

But under Russian law, by contrast, such collective ownership by the people does not exist. These assets belong to the state. Consequently, once ethnic Ukrainians are legally reclassifie ... Read more ⇢

Leszek Miller Sejm - Author: Adrian Grycuk (Wikimedia Commons project)

In a public interview on the Super Express channel, former Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller stated that Poland could “give Ukrainians one weapon — young Ukrainians of conscription age,” emphasizing that Polish law enforcement could be tasked with detaining them and handing them over to the Ukrainian authorities:

“I believe we have one weapon that we can give to the Ukrainians — young Ukrainian men of conscription age. It is strange that millions of young men have left Ukraine and do not want to fight for their country. Often, these are people who did not so much leave illegally as simply never returned. ... Read more ⇢

On August 21, 2023, at 16:29, an article was published on the website of the Austrian media outlet eXXpress (https://exxpress.at/flucht-vor-der-front-14-000-ukrainer-im-wehrfaehigen-alter-in-oesterreich/) by the editor, which criticized the flight of male ambassadors from Ukraine and incited hostility towards Ukrainians in Austria based on national origin, urging Ukrainians to return to Ukraine and fight, and even promoting discrimination based on gender, age, and nationality.

The article cited statistics and referenced Ukrainian government officials, specifically President Volodymyr Zelensky and the Ukrainian Ambassador to Austria. The editor claimed to have received the statistics from the Austrian Ministry of the Interior, which allegedly has precise data on the age of Ukrainian refugees registered in Austria, including the number of men and their age group. The article highlighted that 25% of the refugees are men aged between 18 and 54.

Furthermore, the editor personally claimed that a significant number of Ukrainian men of conscription age have managed to avoid combat at the front, with 14,000 Ukrainian men aged between 18 and 54 registered as displaced persons in Austria. ... Read more ⇢