Kyiv condemns Russia’s fast-track citizenship for Ukrainians
A man speaks on his mobile phone next to houses destroyed during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in the village of Teterivske, Kyiv region on July 9, 2022. AFP
KYIV — Ukraine on Monday condemned a decree from President Vladimir Putin that simplified the Russian citizenship procedure for all Ukrainians, more than four months after Russia’s invasion.
“The mentioned decree is another encroachment on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, incompatible with the norms and principles of international law,” the foreign ministry said.
“Ukrainians do not need Putin’s citizenship and attempts to impose it by force are doomed to failure,” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.
Kuleba called Monday’s decree “worthless” and proof of “Putin’s aggressive appetites”.
In May, Putin previously fast-tracked citizenship for residents of two regions of Ukraine — Kherson, which is in the south and almost entirely under Russian control, and the southeast region of Zaporizhzhia, which Moscow partially controls.
In 2019, a similar decree allowed the same simplified procedure for residents of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, eastern Ukraine’s breakaway regions.
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