Underdocumented in Donbass

Clashes between separatists and government forces complicate the everyday lives of people in eastern Ukraine, but so do the ceasefire phases, which have proven to be unstable. About 3 million people in Donbass have been living in a legal grey zone. According to Ukrainian legislators, residents of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk people's republics are Ukrainian citizens. Yet Ukrainian documents such as passports and birth certificates cannot be issued in territories that are not under Kyiv's control. On the other hand, documents bearing stamps from the separatist territories are not accepted in Kyiv-controlled Ukraine.

The registry offices in the new people's republics have introduced their own forms. "People have not ceased to marry," an employee of the Donetsk registry office said. But he also noted that the marriage and birth certificates are not valid outside the Donetsk People's Republic. The registry offices also have Ukrainian forms, which are no longer valid - even in government-controlled territories. Young mothers have turned to social networks with queries such as "How can I get a Ukrainian birth certificate for my child?"

People living in separatist-controlled territories can supposedly obtain papers easily. They just have to go to the relevant national authorities outside their region. But this is where the problems begin: An electronic border pass is needed to get into the kilometer-long lines to cross the new internal frontier between Donbass and the rest of Ukraine. That's strenuous, but still not the greatest hurdle.

When a child is born in a hospital in the separatist-controlled areas, the self-proclaimed republic's Health Ministry issues a document that Ukrainian registry offices do not recognize. "All the families I know with newborns have problems obtaining a Ukrainian birth certificate," a young mother said. Officially recognized death certificates don't come easy either.

Officials at the Donetsk Justice Ministry, which is located in the government-controlled territory, have acknowledged this legal gap. An official told DW that the ministry planned to address the problem in cooperation with the Ukrainian Health Ministry. Until then, disputes must be resolved in court.

Black market in demand again

People have also turned to the black market. "The Ukrainian passport for my 16-year-old daughter cost me about 2,500 hryvnia (108 euros/$120)," a woman from Donetsk said. "I could not leave the region to get her papers because I did not have the electronic pass."

Without a valid Ukrainian passport, people cannot travel to neighboring Russia, either. But residents of Donbass have no idea how they can legally obtain a Ukrainian passport in the areas not controlled by the government. Pro-Russians in the self-proclaimed republics had hoped for a rapid issuing of Russian passports, but this has not yet happened, so they need Ukrainian documents when they travel outside the region.

There are now nine administrative districts in Ukraine and, in Kyiv, 11 administrative centers that issue inhabitants of the conflict zones new passports for free.

"Obtaining documents is no problem in Kyiv. Even the lines we saw in the autumn have disappeared," Natalya Shamray, director of the municipal authority of Kyiv, told DW. "We've heard from people that in Donbass many inhabitants pay huge amounts of money on the black market to obtain their documents, but all passport services are actually free," she added. "You do not need to turn to the black market and, in doing so, support corruption."