Contents tagged with Donbas

  • Putin invites Zelensky to return Saakashvili’s Ukrainian citizenship

    ​Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed that the elected President of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky, return Ukrainian citizenship to Mikheil Saakashvili.

    "As for freedoms, it would be better to start not from Russia or Russians, but, let's say, from Georgians, or former Georgians. For example, it would be fair to restore the Ukrainian citizenship to a person who used to be Georgian in the past and now considers himself a Ukrainian, I mean Mikheil Nikolayevich Saakashvili ", quoted Putin TASS …

  • Russia begins opening passport issuance centers to service LPR and DPR residents

    In the Russian city of Novoshakhtinsk (Rostov Oblast), a Russian passport center has been opened to service the residents of the territory of the Luhansk region which is under control of pro-Russian militants. It will be able to receive up to 200 applications a day, said the representative of the Main Migration Department of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Kirill Alzinov, as quoted by Russia’s Interfax.

     “As the number of requests grows, we will increase the number of centers,” …

  • Putin: Russia and Ukraine could agree on joint citizenship

    Commenting on journalists’ questions about Russia's plans to issue passports to the Ukrainian citizens and the response of the elected president of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky, Russian President Vladimir Putin once again called the Ukrainians and Russians one nation and stated the need for common citizenship.  

    “I have said many times that Ukrainians and Russians are brotherly nations. Moreover, I believe that this is one nation with their own cultural, linguistic, historical features, but in …

  • Germany develops action plan for de-escalation in Donbas

    The parliamentary Free Democratic Party unanimously supported the document “Peace in Ukraine needs a new impulse” which will be presented to the Bundestag in 2 weeks, reported the German publication Bild.

    “The government must recognize the political realities and accept our additional action plan as an opportunity to break the deadlock,” the document says.

    Bild published several of the 12 provisions in the document. In particular, the German government needs to draw up an additional action …

  • Russia not yet granting citizenship to Donbas residents

    Following a decree by the Russian President to simplify the passport issuance process for people living in the so-called Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics (LDPR) in eastern Ukraine, the Migration Service in Rostov has been bombarded with applications – all of which have been rejected, said Russian MP from Rostov-on-Don Anatoly Kotlyarov in a Facebook post.

    “Citizenship? Aha. You’re getting ahead of yourselves! The Interior Ministry has received 1309 appeals concerning rejected citizenship …

  • Putin: Kremlin may ease citizenship requirements for all Ukrainians

    It is possible that after the citizenship requirements have been simplified for the residents of the Donbas, a similar an opportunity will be provided to all Ukrainian citizens, stated  Russian President Vladimir Putin as quoted by RIA Novosti.

    "We are providing such an opportunity of obtaining our citizenship not only to the residents of the LPR and DRP. We are also thinking about giving all citizens of Ukraine our citizenship in a simplified way, " he said.

    Putting stressed that the …

  • Putin wants to discuss with Zelensky ‘settlement of conflict in Donbas’

    During a press conference in Beijing, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he could meet with the elected president of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky.

    "If we have a meeting, negotiations will begin, I do not rule this out, we will first of all have to talk about how to end the conflict in the southeast of Ukraine," Putin said.

    He expressed regret that during the elections campaign Zelensky "has already stated that he is not going to sign a decree on amnesty [for LPR and DPR militants] and, …

  • Russia will not pay pensions to Russian passport owners in LPR and DPR

    Russian pensions will be granted only to those Russian passport owners who will leave the territories of Donetsk and Lugansk which are not under Ukraine’s control and undertake permanent residence in Russia, stated the representatives of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation as quoted by RBC news agency.

     “Citizens permanently residing in Ukraine, including in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, will not receive a Russian pension. When these citizens undertake permanent residency in Russia, …

  • Lithuania calls for tougher sanctions against Russia over issuance of passports for Donbas residents

    ​​The Lithuanian Foreign Ministry condemns Russia's decision to simplify Russian passports issuance to the residents of the occupied Donbas and calls on the international community to tighten sanctions, reads the statement published on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania website.

    “The Foreign Ministry strongly condemns the decree of Russian President Vladimir Putin, simplifying the procedure of granting Russian citizenship to Ukrainian citizens living in the …

  • Ukraine appeals to UN Security Council over Putin’s 'audacious decree' to grant Donbas residents Russian citizenship

    Ukraine is outraged by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decree to simplify the procedure for residents of the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics to obtain Russian passports. Kyiv has already appealed to the UN Security Council in this regard, noted Volodymyr Yelchenko, Ukraine’s Permanent Representative to the organization.

    “This audacious step goes against the Minsk agreements ratified by the Security Council,” he wrote on Twitter.

    Putin recently signed a decree making it …