Where Did All These Passports Come From? Russia’s Manipulation of Citizenship as Hybrid Warfare in Ukraine

(Ryan O’Neale – Just Security) Even long before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Kremlin employed various “hybrid” methods to extend its influence within Ukrainian territory, including by cultivating allies in Ukrainian government circles in the years after the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union and by supporting oligarchs in their drive for control over sectors of Ukraine’s economy. With its 2014 capture of Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine and subsequent full-scale invasion eight years later, it has manipulated citizenship and the granting of Russian passports in various ways to justify its invasion and consolidate control over occupied Ukrainian territory. These tactics of hybrid warfare have significantly supplemented the power of Russia’s conventional military operations to exert political and administrative control over occupied populations. This Russian policy of “passportization” — meaning the mass, expedited conferral of citizenship through the distribution of passports — is a critical tool in Russia’s effort to lure or subjugate populations. The Russian interior minister asserted in March 2025 that 3.5 million residents of occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the east and other occupied Ukrainian territory that the Kremlin calls by the imperial-era term “Novorossiya” (New Russia) have received Russian passports. The practice and the strategic objectives underlying this practice have severe implications for international law, future peace negotiations, and European security. – Russia’s Abuse of Passports as Hybrid Warfare in Ukraine