At least 15,000 Ukrainian citizens have obtained Russian passports in the so-called Donetsk People Republic (DPR) for the past 4 months, ria.ru reports with reference to the Interior Ministry of DPR.
35,000 persons have applied for Russian citizenship, the media outlet adds.
“It is very nice to see the progress of the much-required work initiated by the decree of Russian President Vladimir Putin. It is quiet and systematical. I have had a conversation with the head [of the migration service], and it is clear that everything has been arranged here, e.g. both first-come-first-served basis and take-a-number-system. Things are underway, no one and nothing will stop them, and the process is very correct,” Sergei Mironov, Chairman of the Fair Russia faction in the State Duma, said.
The top Russian official visited the self-proclaimed republic on September, 2.
In late April,Putin signed a decree easing citizenship rules for residents of the so-called Luhansk and Donetsk republics. The decision was made ‘in order to protect human rights and freedoms’. In the wake of it, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin called on the EU and the G7 countries to introduce new sanctions against Russia.
