Russia has been threatening to issue Ukrainians in occupied Donbas with Russian passports for a very long time. Russian President Vladimir Putin chose to carry out this threat three days after Ukrainians overwhelmingly voted in a new President, whom Moscow has yet to even recognize. If Putin’s 24 April decree, simplifying the process for Donbas residents to gain Russian citizenship, is a direct attempt to extract concessions from the President-Elect Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the statement from the latter’s team seems to suggest that the plan has backfired.
Russia's War Against Ukraine
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A Ukrainian border guarder scans a passport of a Russian citizen crossing the Russian-Ukrainian border on the checkpoint of Goptivka, near Kharkiv, on Jan. 3, 2018.
