Putin is thinking about issuing Russian passports to all Ukrainians, not just residents of Donbass
The Russian Federation is thinking about providing the opportunity to obtain citizenship in a simplified manner not only to residents of the territories of the Lugansk and Donetsk regions not controlled by Kyiv, but also to other citizens of Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced this at a press conference in Beijing today following the roundtable discussion at the Second Belt and Road International Forum, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“In general, we are thinking about providing Ukrainian citizens with our citizenship in a simplified manner,” he said.
Putin also expressed disagreement with the idea that the distribution of passports would hit Russia's budget.
“As for the discussion of this topic: I think that in the discussion of this topic, first of all, especially from the point of view of horror stories for the Russian budget, for our state employees, these horror stories are, of course, thrown in by those people or those political forces that do not want, so that Russia somehow supports the people living in Donbass,” he emphasized.
Let us recall that on April 24, Putin, by his decree, simplified the procedure for granting Russian citizenship to residents of areas of Donbass not controlled by Kyiv. The document came into force on the date of its official publication.
Putin is considering issuing Russian passports to all Ukrainians, not just residents of Donbas.