Kyiv Responds to Putin's Fast-track Citizenship for Ukrainians

Ukraine strongly denounced, on Monday, a decree from President Vladimir Putin that simplified the Russian citizenship procedure for all Ukrainians.

"The mentioned decree is another encroachment on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, incompatible with the norms and principles of international law," the Ukrainian foreign ministry said.

"Ukrainians do not need Putin's citizenship and attempts to impose it by force are doomed to failure," Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said, calling the decree "worthless" and proof of "Putin's aggressive appetites".

Meanwhile, Kyiv is calling on the West for new tough sanctions on Moscow and to step up its supplies of heavy weaponry to punish the country for its citizenship decree.

Putin signed a decree to expand the option to obtain Russian citizenship via a simplified procedure.

"Declare that citizens of Ukraine, Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) or Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) and people without citizenship permanently living in DPR, LPR or Ukraine […] are entitled to appeal for admission to citizenship of the Russian Federation via simplified procedure in accordance with the […] law ‘On citizenship of the Russian Federation," the decree said.

The previous version only covered residents of DPR, LPR and Kherson, and Zaporozhye regions.

"Military service, service in national security or law enforcement agencies of Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republic cannot be considered a reason for denying Russian citizenship," the document read.