MOSCOW, May 23. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said the Kiev regime, by approving a special status for the citizens of Poland in Ukraine, transfers them the rights for the territory of the country and essentially legalizes a capture of the country.
"Under the guise of preserving its own identity, the Kiev regime is destroying it by shooting at its own people for eight years, and now doing something unseen - de facto legalizing the seizure of the country," she said on Telegram.
According to Zakharova, when addressing the national parliament with a request to approve special rights for citizens of another state, the country's president "essentially allows them everything." According to media leaks, it’s about equating the rights of Poles with the rights of Ukrainians, with the exception of the right to vote.
"It’s a casus of sovereignty. Hard to come up with a different description," she said. "Not separatists, but the president of the country himself gives the citizens of another country rights on the territory of his state, without making them Ukrainian citizens."
"If the Kiev regime is so actively throwing around its independence, then what kind of complaints can the Ukrainian administration have against the Crimeans?" Zakharova said. "The sovereignty of Ukraine doesn’t bother anyone at Bankovaya Street, to the extent that the main question is not how to preserve it, but whom to give it away to."
There are other questions, too, she said: "For how much, how many times and how deeply to conduct the integration in a form that’s convenient for the West."
Agreement with Warsaw
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, speaking in the parliament on Sunday, announced an agreement reached with the leadership of Poland to simplify border crossing between the countries. He added that the current situation "involuntarily made Ukraine and Poland forget the disputes over the shared past." Earlier, Zelensky also announced a bill that would give expanded opportunities for Polish citizens in Ukraine.