“Since the beginning of 2025, more than nine thousand passports of a citizen of the Russian Federation have been issued to residents of liberated settlements”, - the Donetsk media write.
Over the past year, russian occupation troops managed to seize a number of cities and villages in the Donetsk oblast. At the same time, the pre-war population of only the currently uncontrolled Toretsk, Kurakhove, and Niu-York exceeded 120 thousand.
Thus, contrary to numerous statements by russian propaganda about the universal joy of local residents of Donetsk oblast at the sight of russian soldiers, no more than 5–7% of the pre-war number of residents waited for the “liberators”. For example, in four villages and settlements occupied in December (Siversk, Serebrianka, Zvanivka, Pereizdne), russian passports, ceremonially and in the presence of the head of the “DNR” Denis Pushilin, were issued to only seven residents.
The “DNR Ministry of Internal Affairs” has repeatedly reported that immediately after the capture by the armed forces of the russian federation of a particular settlement, the issuance of russian passports to its residents begins. “Since most citizens cannot come for passports to temporary police departments, mobile groups equip document issuance points in half-destroyed buildings, literally under shelling”, - local policemen state.