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Kiev calls Moscow’s move to issue passports to Donbass residents ‘continuing aggression’

The top Ukrainian diplomat has called on Ukrainian citizens in Donbass not to get Russian passports

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavel Klimkin EPA-EFE/GEORGI LICOVSKI

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavel Klimkin

© EPA-EFE/GEORGI LICOVSKI

KIEV, April 24. /TASS/. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavel Klimkin has described the Russian president’s decree on easing the procedure on granting Russian citizenship to the citizens of the self-proclaimed Donbass republics as Moscow’s continuing aggression and interference in Ukraine’s domestic affairs.

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"Russia’s decision on granting Russian passports on the occupied Ukrainian territories is the continuing aggression and meddling in our domestic affairs. This is a new ‘passport’ stage of occupying Donbass," the minister wrote on Twitter.

The top Ukrainian diplomat has called on Ukrainian citizens in Donbass not to get Russian passports. "Russia has deprived you of your present, and now it encroaches on your future," Klimkin tweeted.

Earlier on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree enabling citizens of certain areas in Ukraine’s Donetsk and Lugansk regions to get Russian citizenship in a simplified procedure.

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