ROSTOV-ON-DON, July 23. /TASS/. About 30,000 people living in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR) have applied for Russian citizenship under a simplified procedure, governor of Russia’s southern Rostov region Vasily Golubev said on Tuesday.

"By now, passports have been issued to about 7,000 people. Some 30,000 more have appled for Russian passports," he said.

The Russian interior ministry in June opened two first specialized migration departments in the Rostov region to issue Russian passports to people living in the DPR and LPR under the simplified procedure. Two more such departments were opened in July and another four passport issuing centers are to be launched by the autumn.

Viktor Vodolatsky, a chairman of the committee for the CIS affairs, Eurasian integration and relations with compatriots of the Russian State Duma lower parliament house, told TASS earlier that more than 10,000 DPR and LPR residents had received Russian passports over the past month.

A decree simplifying citizenship granting procedures for people living in the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin on April 24, 2019. On July 17, 2019, the president issued a decree extending these procedures onto other categories of Ukrainian citizens.