Russia is further expanding its influence in eastern Ukraine: residents of separatist-controlled areas are more likely to get a Russian passport. Ukraine wants to prevent this with the help of the UN.
Moscow has facilitated the rules for obtaining Russian citizenship for residents of eastern Ukraine. A corresponding decree was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, as the Kremlin announced.
With this, Russia is further expanding its influence in the territories. As a result, residents residing in „individual counties“ of the Donetsk and Luhansk areas may become Russian citizens in a „simplified procedure“. The communication refers to a quick examination of the documents.
The provocation from Moscow comes hardly a week after the election victory of the future President Volodymyr Selenskyj.
Kiev calls UN Security Council
Ukraine fights back: It wants to call the UN Security Council, said the ambassador of the former Soviet republic to the United Nations, Vladimir Yelchenko. He had turned on the instructions of outgoing President Petro Poroshenko to the UN Security Council. „This bold move contradicts the Minsk agreements recognized by the Security Council.“
Selensky said the tightening of sanctions against Russia. „Ukraine counts on the support of the international community (…) and on an intensification of the diplomatic pressure as well as the sanctions against Russia“, it was said in a statement of the electoral winner.
Foreign Minister Pawel Klimkin tweeted: „I call on the Ukrainian citizens of the territories occupied by Russia not to accept the Russian passports, Russia has taken away the present and is now taking on the future.“
Moscow had already recognized documents issued by the separatist authorities, such as birth certificates or vehicle registration certificates, which was criticized internationally. The decree had been speculated for quite some time in Russian and Ukrainian media.
Parallels with Transnistria and South Ossetia
In Kiev, the fear of freezing the conflict is similar to that in Moldova’s Transnistria. In the area split off from Moldova in 1990, the majority of the population also has Russian citizenship. In an escalation of the conflict, the Kremlin, according to its doctrine, could directly use the Russian army under the pretext of protecting its own citizens – similar to Georgian South Ossetia in August 2008.
After the war with Russia, Georgia lost control of its breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in 2008. Subsequently, Russia recognized the territories as independent states. Even in the Ukraine conflict there is a possibility that Russia officially recognizes the regions separated from Ukraine. According to UN estimates, around 13,000 people have been killed in eastern Ukraine since 2014 as a result of fighting between government forces and the rebels supported by Moscow.
