On July 11, Russian President Vladimir Putin opened up the fast-track route to Russian citizenship for all Ukrainians. Putin issued a decree to this effect. Only citizens of the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, as well as those of southern Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, were previously eligible for the fast-track path. However, all Ukrainians can now access the mechanism. Officials from Ukraine did not immediately respond to this development.
More than 720,000 people or “approximately 18% of the population” of the rebel-held regions in Donetsk and Luhansk got Russian passports from 2019, when the process was initially opened for residents of those two districts, to this year.
The first Russian passports were distributed a month ago
Residents of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson areas were also given the option to use the fast-track process in late May, three months after Russia invaded Ukraine. The first Russian passports were apparently distributed there a month ago.
Putin’s move came despite the fact that the Russian bombardment of the second-largest city in Ukraine resulted in at least three deaths and 31 injuries. The officials referred to the three missile strikes by Russian forces on Kharkiv earlier that day as “absolute terrorism.”
Oleh Syniehubov, the regional governor of Kharkiv, claimed on Telegram that several rocket launchers were involved in the shelling. He noted that patients in hospitals were in the age range of 4 to 16.
“Only civilian structures, a shopping center, and houses of peaceful Kharkiv residents came under the fire of the Russians. Several shells hit the yards of private houses. Garages and cars were also destroyed, and several fires broke out.” He wrote.
He had earlier claimed that one of the missiles fired by Russian forces into Kharkiv during the night demolished a school, another struck a residential structure, and a third fell close to warehouse facilities.
“All (three were launched) exclusively on civilian objects, this is absolute terrorism!” he said.