What to do with Russians who have settled in occupied territories?

The statement by Putin's mouthpiece Dmitry Peskov that the Russian Federation wants to control all Ukrainian regions, which the Kremlin had previously written into the Russian constitution, shows that this terrorist state is aimed at escalating a military confrontation. 

Moscow continues to illegally populate the Ukrainian Crimea and the occupied territory of southern and eastern Ukraine with people from the repressive regions of the Russian Federation.

Therefore, it is now necessary to think about what to do with this stray Russian population in Ukraine, which, believing the Kremlin's propaganda about "new lands", moved to the territory of another country, believing that they arrived there legally.

“After the de-occupation of our territories, this will be a terrible and unpleasant surprise for those Russians who are being used by Putin as colonisers and who thought they had moved to Ukraine for good. They will all have to move back to Russia, leaving them homeless and destitute”

On the example of Crimea, we can see that the smarter and more informed among the newcomers are already trying to sell their homes and leave the occupied Crimean peninsula. However, not everyone understands this, and Putin's regime manages to deceive the new settlers by tempting them with various benefits and much higher salaries for newcomers in Mariupol, Melitopol, Berdyansk, Henichesk, Skadovsk, Oleshky, Kakhovka, Nova Kakhovka, Hola Prystan and other cities in the southern part of Ukraine.

It is obvious that after the liberation of the occupied Ukrainian lands, the settlers will not be able to stay here for long. Most of them will flee with the retreating Russian army. However, there will be those who will appeal to human rights, international law and the fact that they have nowhere to go, as they have no housing in Russia.

“It will not be difficult to identify such newcomers in the liberated Ukrainian regions, but once the documents for the eviction of the modern colonisers are prepared and the process is launched, it will be necessary to develop a procedure for their return to the Russian Federation”

There is no doubt that Moscow will explain that these are its ancestral territories, which it has owned for 1,000 years, so it has the right to them. That the Ukrainians themselves appeared on their territories from who knows where, and that they were the ones who went there, not the Russians, who simply wanted to revive "historical justice". But they will not succeed in this.

For some reason, these Russian bastards did not care that in Mariupol, Putin began to build houses on the bones of innocent Ukrainian citizens. Pushed by their greed and shortsightedness, they deliberately decided to live in the war zone, not thinking that this cheap housing would end up costing them their lives.

The Russian dictator has arbitrarily granted himself the right to attack Ukraine, destroy Ukrainian cities, and then, having built a few houses there, claim that it is all his. And until Putin and his criminal regime are completely destroyed, no state in Europe is safe from Russian expansionist terrorism.

One wonders how Moscow's rabble can even live alongside Ukrainian neighbours who hate them for killing and kidnapping their children. And how do they move through the Russian minefields that have made these occupied spaces uninhabitable for a long time?

“All of these vagrants will eventually become refugees in Russia, and after the defeat of the Russian Federation, they will regret very much that they believed Putin's propaganda and made "great investments" in the war zone.  What kind of mentality does one have to have to believe Putin that their illegal properties are "insured" by his empty promises? This is probably the worst thing to do - to sell your house and get an apartment in a war zone, on land that doesn't even belong to you”

Russians are the most cruel and senseless people in the world. Any sane person these days would not move to a city where there have been so many horrific deaths. Do they really hope that Ukrainians will ever allow them to settle down in Mariupol or anywhere else for a long time?

The Kremlin, which attacked Ukraine under the guise of allegedly "liberating Russian speakers", ended up "liberating" them from everything they owned. The Russians got Mariupol, and the people of Mariupol got Siberia. All of this can be qualified as aggressive colonisation and a means to justify future invasions, ostensibly to protect ethnic Russians living in Ukraine.

Ignorance, greed, incomprehension - whatever the main motivation of these modern-day migrants, while their compatriots came to destroy and kill, they came to take what was not theirs. Not realising the price they would have to pay for it. How can Russian citizens seek accommodation in territory that rightfully belongs to another sovereign country?

“Today's Putin's Russia is repeating the experience of its predecessors, which they have used against Ukraine for centuries. Destroy the population through deportation, starvation or simply mass murder. Then repopulate the land with as many ethnic Russians as possible, telling the world that Russians have always been the indigenous population here”

Putin is now doing much the same thing as Stalin did in 1932-1933, when he forcibly took all the crops from Ukraine, condemning millions to starvation, and then sent in Russians to take over the property of the dead Ukrainians. Putin, who is in awe of Stalin's legacy, wants to do it again.

There are still areas of Russia that have not been fully reconstructed since World War II, and Mariupol is a zone of complete devastation. Putin will never have time to turn it into a "beautiful city", a showcase of the "achievements" of the occupation authorities. Newcomers will be forced to leave in a hurry as soon as Ukrainian army units approach it.

“The legal status of the newly arrived Russian population, who voluntarily performed the function of occupying these lands, should be determined now, after Ukraine regains control of them. They are also invaders, as are members of the enemy's terrorist military formations, as they also illegally stayed on Ukrainian territory”

Thus, under Ukrainian law, the settlement of Russian citizens in southern Ukraine, Donbas and Crimea qualifies as illegal entry into the territory of Ukraine. This is enshrined in Article 331 "Illegal crossing of the state border" of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine, which clearly states: "Crossing the state border of Ukraine in any way outside the checkpoints across the state border of Ukraine or at the checkpoints across the state border of Ukraine, but without the relevant documents or permission, shall be punishable by a fine of up to fifty tax-free minimum incomes, or arrest for a term of up to six months, or a prison term of up to three years."

Therefore, Russian citizens brought to Donbas, southern Ukraine and Crimea must either voluntarily leave Ukrainian territory or face criminal liability under Article 331.

Qualified and experienced Ukrainian international lawyers, with the help of lawyers from Ukraine's partner countries, should already decide how to legally address the issue of the illegal stay of Russian migrants on Ukrainian territory. And how to organise the return to the Russian Federation of Russian citizens illegally settled in southern Ukraine, Donbas and Crimea.

“At the first stage of preparations for Ukraine's solution to the problem of Russian settlers, it is necessary to establish an international commission on the issue of Russia's illegal settlement of Russian citizens in the occupied territories of Ukraine”

It could include lawyers not only from Ukraine, but also from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and representatives of a number of other countries that support the independence and sovereignty of the Ukrainian state.

Until this commission starts its work, it would be advisable to file a lawsuit with the International Court of Justice in The Hague on behalf of the state of Ukraine over the illegal stay and settlement of Russian citizens in Ukraine.  The claim should clearly state the demand to return all settlers back to Russia.

It is now very important for Ukraine to bring the issue of Russian settlers to the international level, as the occupation of southern Ukraine, Crimea and Donbas by Russia has long gone beyond a purely Ukrainian problem.

Source

About the author. Viktor Kaspruk, journalist

The editors do not always share the views expressed by the authors of the blogs.