What are the possible approaches regarding documents issued under the occupation?
Since the beginning of the occupation of part of the territory of Ukraine, the Russian Federation (RF) has used different approaches to the extension of its legislation to the occupied territories: either immediately illegally extended its legislation to this territory, as happened with the temporarily occupied territory (TOT) of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol in 2014; or, as in the situation with the TOT of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, exercised control over these territories through its occupation administrations without incorporating these territories in its territory. However, since September 2022, following the unlawful incorporation of parts of Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk and Kherson regions into the RF and the adoption of these provisions into the RF Constitution, all legislation of the aggressor country has been applied equally to all TOT of Ukraine.
Therefore, all documents issued in the TOT of Ukraine are issued either in accordance with the legislation of the RF or the so-called DPR/LPR. Ukraine recognises such actions of the occupying power as unlawful. According to Article 9 of the Law of Ukraine “On Ensuring the Rights and Freedoms and Legal Regime in the Temporarily Occupied Territory of Ukraine”, any act issued by illegal authorities and/or persons in the TOT of Ukraine is invalid and does not create legal consequences. The only exceptions are documents confirming the fact of birth, death, marriage or divorce of a person in the TOT of Ukraine, but even these documents are subject to a judicial procedure that precedes the issuance of Ukrainian state-issued documents.
This analytical note is the first attempt to define the list of documents issued by the occupation authorities, and the information from which can be used by the state authorities of Ukraine in a certain order to minimise the negative consequences of the occupation for a significant part of the population of Ukraine living under occupation. The document lists the key categories of documents issued by the occupation authorities in the TOT of Ukraine, which are critical for the exercise of the rights and freedoms of Ukrainian citizens, and for which it is possible to determine the mechanisms and procedures for taking them into account when issuing the relevant state-issued documents. This list is not exhaustive but gives an idea of the scope of the problems faced by Ukrainian citizens living in the TOT of Ukraine and the tasks that the state faces.
