Ukraine outraged by announcement that Russia would recognize separatist-issued passports
Representatives of the Ukrainian authorities reacted severely to Vladimir Putin’s decree that Russia would recognize documents issued to citizens of Ukraine and stateless persons in “the separate territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions”. “For me this is yet another piece of evidence of both Russian occupation and Russia’s violation of international law” said Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Saturday the 18th of February in Munich.
“This decree fundamentally contradicts the logic of the Minsk Agreements,” remarked Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Pavlo Klimkin, who was also in Munich, after the “Normandy Four” meeting. “Unfortunately, the meeting took place before we received information on the Russian president’s decree. I would have reacted entirely differently then,” Klimkin stressed.
“Such a step by the Kremlin completely nullifies the Minsk process, and amounts to the Russian president’s announcing withdrawal from it,” claims Oleksandr Turchynov, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. Russia “has legally recognized the state-like terrorist groups,” he noted.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov asserts that Putin’s decree is based on “purely humanitarian considerations”. “I don’t think that anyone perceives this as some kind of change in Russia’s position”, Lavrov stressed.