Support The Moscow Times!

170K in East Ukraine Get Russian Passports Under Putin’s Fast-Track Program

Igor Ivanko / Moskva News Agency

More than 170,000 residents of separatist-controlled territories in eastern Ukraine have become Russian citizens under President Vladimir Putin’s fast-track program since it launched six months ago, authorities said.

Putin simplified the path to Russian citizenship for an estimated 3.7 million residents of the pro-Russian Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics” in April, angering Ukraine and the United States. He later expanded the fast-track Russian passport offer to residents of neighboring areas in eastern Ukraine that are under Kiev’s control.

“As for the number of people who received citizenship, it’s over 170,000,” Rostov region governor Vasily Golubev told local television Wednesday. “Some have of course gone back [to eastern Ukraine].”

Golubev did not specify what share of the newly minted Russian citizens came from government- or separatist-controlled areas. 

He said the cross-border influx has not affected his region’s social services, school systems or labor market.

Russia opened its first passport-issuing center for eastern Ukrainians in the Rostov region’s mining city of Novoshakhtinsk near the border with Ukraine. The state-run TASS news agency reported that four more were opened in the region over the summer and four others were set to open this fall.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy responded to Putin’s expanded passportization drive in July with an overhaul of Ukrainian citizenship procedures. Zelenskiy opened eligibility to those suffering from human rights violations and constraints on freedom in their home countries and to ethnic Ukrainians "from friendly powers" willing to help Ukraine's development.

Five years of war between Ukrainian troops and Russian-backed forces in Ukraine’s eastern Donbass region have killed 13,000 people despite a ceasefire signed in 2015.

… we have a small favor to ask.

As you may have heard, The Moscow Times, an independent news source for over 30 years, has been unjustly branded as a "foreign agent" by the Russian government. This blatant attempt to silence our voice is a direct assault on the integrity of journalism and the values we hold dear.

We, the journalists of The Moscow Times, refuse to be silenced. Our commitment to providing accurate and unbiased reporting on Russia remains unshaken. But we need your help to continue our critical mission.

Your support, no matter how small, makes a world of difference. If you can, please support us monthly starting from just 2. It's quick to set up, and you can be confident that you're making a significant impact every month by supporting open, independent journalism. Thank you.

Continue

Read more