Putin decides to grant Russian citizenship to all Ukrainians

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday issued a decree expediting the procedure for granting Russian citizenship to all Ukrainians, more than four months after the start of the Russian military offensive in Ukraine.

The decree provides that "all citizens of Ukraine ... the right to apply for citizenship of the Russian Federation under the facilitation of procedures."

This measure includes all Ukrainian citizens, after it was approved, in May, to facilitate the procedures for obtaining a Russian passport for residents of the Zaporizhia and Kherson regions, a large part of which Russia has occupied since its February attack on its Ukrainian neighbor.

Moscow and pro-Moscow officials said the two regions would become part of Russia.

This comes in the wake of Moscow allowing similar measures to be accelerated for the people of the separatist "republics" of Donetsk and Lugansk in eastern Ukraine, whose independence the Kremlin recognized, paving the way for the February 24 attack.

Russia is accused of distributing Russian passports to its neighbors to extend its influence.

Before Ukraine, it adopted the same policy towards the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia in Georgia, and the pro-Russian breakaway region of Transdniestria in Moldavia.

Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova are all former Soviet republics with pro-Western ambitions.

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