UK intel says Russia is giving Ukrainians in occupied towns a choice: Get Russian passports or get 'deported' and have their property seized

• Russian authorities are forcing Ukrainian citizens in occupied areas to get Russian passports.
• If residents refuse, they will be "deported" and have their property seized, UK intel said.

In occupied towns, Russian authorities are giving Ukrainian civilians a choice: Get a Russian passport or leave.

According to an update from the UK Ministry of Defense, Russia is forcing Ukrainian citizens to accept Russian Federation passports.

In some areas of the Kherson region in southeast Ukraine, residents "have been warned that those who have not accepted a Russian passport by 1 June 2023 will be 'deported' and their property seized," the ministry said.

The ministry added that making Ukrainians register with Russian passports is "a tool in the 'Russification' of the occupied areas," meaning the forced assimilation of Ukrainians into Russian culture.

Russia previously used passports to integrate Ukrainians in Donetsk and Luhansk before the February 2022 invasion, the intel said.

Russian forces on the frontlines of the war are preparing for Ukraine's long-anticipated counteroffensive, which Kyiv hopes will break the stalemate of the current state of the war and retake some key areas in the country's east.