Headline Roundup • July 11th, 2022
Putin Expands Fast-Track Russian Citizenship to All Ukrainians
Summary from the AllSides News Team
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed a decree that expanded a fast-track procedure for obtaining Russian citizenship to all Ukrainians.
The simplified passport procedure was initially offered to Ukrainians residing in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions back in 2019. The fast-track procedure, which was signed by Putin the day after Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s presidential victory was officially proclaimed, shaped the way for Ukrainians from those areas to have their applications for Russian citizenship up for acceptance within 90 days.
Since then, more than 720,000 residents from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions – about 18 percent of the population – have received Russian passports. In late May, three months after Putin first invaded Ukraine, the passport procedure was offered to residents of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba labeled Putin's latest decree as "worthless" and further proof of "Putin’s aggressive appetites."
Some coverage noted that Putin's move was "largely symbolic" of his intentions to unite Russians and Ukrainians as "one people."
Featured Coverage of this Story
AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka
As Russian missiles struck a key Ukrainian city, 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.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Klueba said Putin’s signing of a passport decree, which also...
Maxim Shemetov/Reuters
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree expanding a fast track to Russian citizenship to all citizens of Ukraine, a document published on the government’s website showed.
Until recently, only residents of the self-proclaimed breakaway territories of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) in eastern Ukraine, which Russia seeks to “liberate” from Kyiv’s control, as well as the Russian-occupied regions of Kherson and Zaporizhia, were eligible for the simplified procedure.
Between 2019 – when the procedure was first introduced for the residents of Donetsk and Luhansk...
The Daily Caller
Ukrainian officials were silent as Russian President Vladimir Putin expanded a fast-track citizenship path on Monday to Residents in Ukraine, according to the Associated Press.
The move to expand citizenship roles comes after a pivot in Russian strategy to settle for a war of attrition, according to the Wall Street Journal. Previously, the fast-track path was only available for residents in Russian-controlled territories of the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions and southern Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, the AP reported.
In 2019, Russian authorities used the measure in Donetsk and Luhansk to further integrate the...
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