During the first ten days of October 2026, in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, Russian law enforcement agencies together with the FSB carried out another stage of a large-scale operational and preventive operation codenamed 'Illegal-2026'. The main blow during these raids fell on the local Ukrainian population, who categorically refused to obtain Russian passports. The aggressor's security structures classify such citizens as 'foreign nationals', subjecting them to harsh measures under the migration legislation of the Russian Federation.
Goals and Methods of Forced Passportization
The main task of these measures is the violent passportization of residents in the occupied regions, their subsequent expulsion from their native lands, as well as the illegal seizure of property and dismissal from jobs. According to the Main Directorate of Intelligence of Ukraine, such actions by the Russian authorities constitute a targeted instrument of ethnocide. Moscow aims to completely oust the indigenous Ukrainian population from the captured lands, replacing them with arriving Russian citizens.
Pressure on Minors and Their Parents
Of particular concern is the situation in the temporarily occupied territory of Luhansk Oblast, where Russian security forces extended checks to minor citizens. The occupiers are trying to forcibly compel children to obtain Russian documents, threatening their parents with administrative fines, real prison terms, and even deprivation of parental rights. Residents of the region are effectively faced with a choice: accept the citizenship of a foreign country or face the threat of immediate eviction from their own homes.
Scale of the Campaign and the Context of Russification
Similar raids within the framework of the same 'Illegal-2026' operation are simultaneously recorded in the territory of the Russian Federation itself, where labor migrants become the targets of checks, subsequently being coerced into signing contracts for military service. It should be recalled that in the occupied territories, the invaders systematically pursue a policy of total Russification encompassing education and upbringing, including kindergartens, where teachers from Russian regions are massively brought in for the ideological processing of the population.
Significance and Consequences of the Raids
The deployment of Operation 'Illegal-2026' demonstrates the further tightening of the repressive apparatus in the occupied Ukrainian territories and the transition to open forms of blackmailing the civilian population. Such actions destroy the remnants of social infrastructure and create a humanitarian catastrophe for those who resist the imposition of foreign citizenship. Experts and specialized agencies emphasize that the international community must give a strict legal assessment of these methods, classified as a gross violation of international humanitarian law and human rights.
