Report: Escaping the occupiers and the threats
part 2/2
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The full russian invasion in February 2022 is another important turning point in the life of the rebellious young woman. "Stop the war," she posted on social media as a 19-year-old student studying russian philology at the time. "I was threatened by those around me," says Tia. She was also threatened with denunciation. "Denunciations are not a relic of the Soviet era of the 1930s there, but can have serious consequences."

In October 2023, she dares to flee into the unknown via russia. For security reasons, she does not give any details because she does not want to endanger the people helping her escape. Tia comes to Kharkiv - and a humiliating odyssey through Ukrainian bureaucracy begins. Due to her age, apart from her Ukrainian birth certificate, she only has occupation documents from the self-proclaimed "Donetsk People's Republic" since russia has annexed this occupied Ukrainian territory in violation of international law. Tia has to hand over her documents when she arrives in Ukrainian-controlled territory.

Without a Ukrainian passport, the young woman has practically no rights. This means that she cannot go to the doctor, work legally, study or rent an apartment. She also has no status as an internally displaced person and therefore no social support.

A Kharkiv human rights group is helping Tia, but the grueling fight for valid Ukrainian papers takes a whole year. This is also because she cannot prove her identity as the law requires, for example with witnesses. She cannot ask her pro-russian parents, and she does not know anyone in the Ukrainian-controlled area: "I lived in the occupied territories for ten years and had no connection to the Ukrainian-controlled areas."

It is urgently necessary to develop a procedure to confirm identity when there are no witnesses, she says. The responsible ministry for the reintegration of the temporarily occupied territories left inquiries from the ARD studio in Kyiv unanswered.

Recently, the migration service finally issued Tia a Ukrainian passport. She can now finally go to the doctor and do things like banking. Now she wants to study in Kyiv or Kharkiv. There is an unpleasant aftertaste: "I spent almost a year without documents and lost valuable time."

Twelve years after russia occupied her hometown near Donetsk, the little girl from back then has become a strong, independent woman. She has no contact with her family, but her origins in the Donbass are important to her. Little good is said about the people from there: "We are a strong human resource. We are smart, we are worth something and we are also Ukrainians."

This article is google-translated. The original article can be found here.

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