Russian forces threaten Ukrainians with taking away children if they refuse Russian passports

Colonel Oleksii Dmytrashkivskyi, spokesman for the Tauride Defense Forces, shared the information on the United News national telethon.

According to him, this concerns school-age children.

"People who have school-age children are threatened that their children will be taken away from them instead of a diploma if they do not receive passports," Dmytrashkivskyi said.

The Defense Forces spokesman also noted that Russian troops are looking for guerrillas in the temporarily occupied Melitopol after the Ukrainian Armed Forces destroyed warehouses and equipment there.

"We have all heard and seen that there have been repeated explosions in the Melitopol area, where both warehouses and equipment were destroyed, after which the enemy resorted to checking documents and phones. There was even a report that they were looking with a dog for guerrillas," he added.

• Earlier, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces reported that in the temporarily occupied territories of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions Russian forces restrict the movement of Ukrainian citizens who have not received Russian passports. They deliberately and intentionally search vehicles, record all personal data of citizens who do not have Russian documents, and force postmen to distribute forms to the local population, which require information about the presence of a Russian passport.

• Russian forces are also using a new tool to encourage people to obtain Russian passports - the issuance of state housing certificates of the Russian Federation intended for the purchase of housing in Russia.