Ukraine demands Russia cancel decision on passports for Donbass residents

The Ukrainian authorities have demanded Russia revoke its decision to simplify the procedure of granting Russian citizenship to people living in Donbass.

"In the interests of the implementation of the political block, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin should revoke his decrees on illegal issuance of passports to Ukrainians," the first deputy speaker of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada, Irina Gerashchenko, wrote on her Facebook account.

Apart from that, Gerashchenko, who also represents Ukraine in the humanitarian subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group on the settlement in Donbass, said that her country had implemented its liabilities under the political block of the Minsk agreements when it adopted corresponding laws and blamed Russia for the failure to implement this block, TASS reported.

Gerashchenko also demanded Russia cancel its recognition of the elections in and documents of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) and once again said that Kiev refuses to recognize the current authorities in these republics and will never embark on direct negotiations with Donetsk and Lugansk.

On April 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree allowing people living in the DPR and LPR to receive Russian citizenship under a simplified procedure. According to the document, the decision has been made "in order to protect human rights and freedoms" based on universally accepted international laws.