Russia’s FSB notifies Ukrainian nationals that they are banned from leaving Russia through Belarus. Human rights defenders suggest they could be coerced to receive Russian citizenship

21 October 2022, 11:04 GMT

Human rights defenders have received five reports of Ukrainian citizens unable to cross the border between Russia and Belarus. Every Human Being, an organisation defending the rights of people in time of war, says that when Ukrainian nationals attempt to purchase a railway or bus ticket, they are notified that this violates Russian border crossing rules.

There are no legal grounds for that, human rights defenders stress.

According to the document handed to Ukrainian citizens, Federal Security Service (FSB) officers will remove them from a train during border control, issue the a fine of 2,000 to 5,000 rubles (€33 to €83), and deport them if they were en route to Russia.

The document does not refer to any article of Russia’s administrative or criminal code, however, legal experts with Every Human Being point out that it could be an article of the administrative code that deals with violations of the Russian border regime. However, in this case, citizens of other states are fully within their right to leave Russian territory, the human rights defenders note.

Previously, Ukrainians crossing the border were interrogated but ultimately let through. “It’s hard to make predictions in this situation, but we suppose that Russia may later tell Ukrainian nationals: ‘You cannot stay on Russian territory for over 90 days. You must get a Russian passport.’ Earlier, the authorities insisted on granting the Ukrainians temporary asylum and seizing their Ukrainian passports.

Possibly, they may be now coerced to get Russian passports. Those who disagree will be sent to detention facilities and included on the list of extremists and terrorists,” Every Human Being says.

A commentary by Alexey Ladukhin, an attorney with Every Human Being

Draft-age men who formally reside on occupied territories and who managed to enter Russia encounter these problems most often. They are not allowed to buy railway or bus tickets to international destinations (for example, Belarus), or they are simply not allowed to board the bus.
When a Ukrainian national wants to board the bus, they are deliberately approached by a police officer who checks their documents in a special room with no protocol, detaining and intimidating the passenger. The bus ends up leaving without the passenger. Besides, citizens can be forbidden from leaving the country even if they attempt to cross the border in their own vehicle: they may receive a verbal unfounded rejection from Russian border officials.
The actions of the Russian border officials are unlawful. Firstly, the laws of the Russian Federation do not suppose a ban on crossing the state border for foreign nationals, including Ukrainian citizens. The actions of the Russian government can be formally characterised as hostage-taking.
Besides, the current actions of the Russian government violate several articles of the Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War.
Article 35 says that “all protected persons who may desire to leave the territory at the outset of, or during a conflict, shall be entitled to do so, unless their departure is contrary to the national interests of the State”. By state interests, the article means a ban on leaving the country for citizens involved in reconnaissance or sabotage activity on occupied territories, or who were held at detention facilities. The cases that our project has received do not fit these criteria.
Article 48 means that “protected persons who are not nationals of the Power whose territory is occupied, may avail themselves of the right to leave the territory”.
The most important thing is described in Article 51: “The Occupying Power may not compel protected persons to serve in its armed or auxiliary forces. No pressure or propaganda which aims at securing voluntary enlistment is permitted.”
We also know that citizens of Ukraine currently residing in Moscow and St. Petersburg come under scrutiny of the Russian law enforcement. Police officers detain them without protocols, saying that they need to check their documents and hold a “preventive conversation”. Meanwhile, they look at personal information on the detainees’ phones and ask them provocative political questions. The fact that they cause these difficulties could mean that Russian authorities want to draft these citizens into the army.

In August, some Ukrainian nationals complained that they were unable to cross the border at the Ivangorod-Narva checkpoint on the border between Russia and Estonia. According to the Ukrainians, the refusal was caused by the fact that they had previously visited Russia many times.

Estonian officials reported that since the start of the war, over 40,000 Ukrainian nationals had entered the country, many of whom remained in Estonia and were granted temporary protection. In nearly six months, border officials refused entry to approximately one in a hundred Ukrainians. The border guards suggest that those who were refused entry travelled as tourists and did not require protection.