Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin has asked the EU and the G7 countries to introduce new sanctions against Russia in response to its decision to give Russian passports to Ukrainian citizens living in occupied areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
“We must react to the passport banditry now. And we must give an effective response to the Kremlin. It will simultaneously be systemic and asymmetrical… This is why I am asking foreign ministers of G7 countries to introduce new sanctions against Russia,” news agency Interfax quotes Klimkin.
The diplomat stressed he was not ‘showing all the cards’ and hinted there would be a ‘surprise’ to the Kremlin soon.
In late April, Russian president Vladimir Putin signed a decree easing citizenship rules for residents of the so-called Luhansk and Donetsk republics. They can apply for Russian citizenship in Russia’s Rostov Region; their applications will be considered within three months, the Russian Interior Ministry reported. The decision was made ‘in order to protect human rights and freedoms’.
In response, Ukrainian president-elect Volodymyr Zelenskiy recommended them ‘not to waste their time trying to bait the citizens of Ukraine with passports of the Russian Federation’ and promised to issue Ukrainian citizenship to all Russians who ‘suffer from the authoritarian and corrupt regime’.
