KIEV, July 25. /TASS/. The Ukrainian authorities are working on a bill criminalizing the acquisition of Russian passports, Deputy Minister of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories Anatoly Stelmakh said on Monday.

"The possibility of criminalizing the acquisition of these passports by all categories of the population is under consideration <...>. The Ministry of Reintegration is already developing a bill criminalizing the acquisition of [Russian] passports by public figures, as well as efforts to promote the acquisition of passports," he told the Rada TV channel. "As far as the bill is concerned, some of its articles introduce punishments such as fines and prison terms of up to 15 years," Stelmakh specified.

In addition, participation in a referendum will also be criminalized, he added.

At the same time, the official said that the reasons behind those processes weren’t important.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories Irina Vereshchuk said on July 20 that the acquisition of Russian citizenship by Ukrainians should be viewed as a crime regardless of the circumstances.