Vladimir Putin expands fast track Russian citizenship to all Ukraine
- Kyiv calls the leader’s decree ‘worthless’, saying Ukrainians ‘do not need Putin’s citizenship’ and that attempts to impose it by force are ‘doomed to failure’
- Previously, only residents of Ukraine’s separatists regions and some areas now under Russian control were eligible for the simplified passport procedure
Russian President Vladimir Putin expanded a fast track procedure for obtaining Russian citizenship to all Ukrainians on Monday, another effort to strengthen Moscow’s influence over war-torn Ukraine.
Until recently, only residents of Ukraine’s separatist eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as well as residents of the southern Zaporizhzhia and the Kherson regions, large parts of which are now under Russian control, were eligible to apply for the simplified passport procedure.
Kyiv condemned the move on Monday, calling Putin’s decree “another encroachment on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, incompatible with the norms and principles of international law”.
“Ukrainians do not need Putin’s citizenship and attempts to impose it by force are doomed to failure,” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said. He called the decree “worthless” and said it was proof of “Putin’s aggressive appetites”.
Between 2019, when the procedure was introduced for the residents of Donetsk and Luhansk, and this year, more than 720,000 people living in the rebel-held areas in the two regions – about 18 per cent of the population – have received Russian passports.
In late May, three months after Russia invaded Ukraine, the fast track procedure was also offered to residents of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.
The Russian passport move appears to be part of Putin’s political influence strategy, which has also involved introduction of the Russian rouble in occupied territory in Ukraine and could eventually result in the annexation of more Ukrainian territory into the Russian Federation.
Russia already annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula on the Black Sea in 2014.
The Russian president set the stage for such moves even before Russia’s February 24 invasion of Ukraine, writing an essay last summer claiming that Russians and Ukrainians are one people and attempting to diminish the legitimacy of Ukraine as an independent nation.
Reports have surfaced of Russian authorities confiscating Ukrainian passports from some citizens.
