Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin has urged residents of the districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions currently not controlled by Kyiv not to accept Russian citizenship in line with a simplified procedure enacted on April 24 by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“I am calling on Ukrainian citizens on the territories occupied by Russia not to accept Russian passports. Russia has deprived you of your present, and now it is encroaching on your future,” Klimkin wrote on Twitter on April 24.
He described this decision by Russia as “a new stage of occupation.”
“Russia’s decision to issue Russian passports on the occupied Ukrainian territories is the continuation of aggression and interference in our internal affairs. This is a new ‘passport’ stage of Donbas’s occupation,” Klimkin said.
It was reported earlier on Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin had signed the decree ‘On determining categories of individuals entitled to apply for Russian citizenship in line with a simplified procedure for humanitarian purposes,’ which grants this right those permanently residing in certain districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
The decree stipulates that applications for Russian citizenship from such individuals must be considered within three months from the moment applications and the essential documents are submitted. Russian citizenship would be granted starting from the day a decision is made.
