DONETSK, November 4. /TASS/. Over 170,000 residents of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) have received Russian passports, DPR head Denis Pushilin said in an address on Russia’s Unity Day on Wednesday.

"Our ties are getting stronger every day. As many as 170,759 residents of the Donetsk People’s Republic have obtained Russian citizenship," the Donetsk News Agency quoted Pushilin as saying.

As of October 23, more than 160,000 DPR residents received Russian passports, the news agency reported.

There are four passport centers for Donbass residents in Russia’s southern Rostov region. As many as 37 offices of the Russian Migration Service are active in the DPR. Citizenship applications can also be submitted at two centers in Donetsk and Makeyevka.

On April 24, 2019, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree easing Russian citizenship rules for DPR and LPR residents.