Russia offers passports to east Ukraine, president-elect decries 'aggressor state'

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Russia offers passports to east Ukraine, president-elect decries 'aggressor state'

By Darya Korsunskaya and Pavel Polityuk

 

FILE PHOTO: Russian President Vladimir Putin enters a hall to meet French business leaders at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia April 18, 2019. Alexander Nemenov/Pool via REUTERS

 

ST PETERSBURG, Russia/KIEV (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday signed an order simplifying the procedure for obtaining a Russian passport for residents of separatist-controlled eastern Ukraine, prompting calls for more international sanctions from Kiev.

 

Five years of war between Ukrainian troops and Russian-backed forces have killed 13,000 people despite a notional ceasefire signed in 2015.

 

Russia's move is an early test for the Ukrainian president-elect Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who won a landslide victory in Sunday's presidential election and has pledged to find a peaceful solution to the conflict.

 

Zelenskiy said Putin's action showed Russia was waging war in Ukraine and brought the two sides no closer to peace. He called for the international community to threaten Russia with more sanctions. Outgoing President Petro Poroshenko said Russia might try to annex the Donbass region. The United States called the Putin's action "absurd and destabilising".

 

Rebellions broke out against Ukrainian government rule in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in 2014. Moscow provided military help for the separatists, according to evidence gathered by Reuters, though Russian officials have denied providing material support.

 

Plans have been in the works for several months to streamline the issuing of Russian passports to residents of the two regions, according to sources close to the separatist administrations. If those plans had been announced before the Ukrainian election, it could have bolstered the chances of Poroshenko, the candidate Moscow least wanted to win.

 

"We have no desire to create problems for the new Ukrainian leadership, but to tolerate a situation in which people living in the territory of Donetsk and Luhansk republic are generally deprived of any civil rights, this is already crossing the line from the point of view of human rights," Putin said.

 

"CRIMINAL ACTIONS"

Ukraine urged residents not to apply for Russian passports and informed the United Nations about Russia's move. Kiev also asked the European Union to take "prompt and decisive" action.

 

Swathes of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions are now under the de facto control of the Moscow-backed rebels, while Ukraine says it is determined to re-assert its control, a position backed by most Western countries.

 

Zelenskiy's office said his priority was achieving peace but called Russia's actions "another evident confirmation for the world community of Russia's true role as an aggressor state, which is waging a war against Ukraine", a statement said.

 

Russia has consistently denied Western and Ukrainian accusations that it sends troops and heavy weapons to fight Ukrainian forces in the region.

 

Relations between Ukraine and Russia plunged after the Maidan street protests in Kiev in 2014 prompted a Kremlin-backed Ukrainian president to flee into exile.

 

Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula a month later in March 2014, triggering Western sanctions.

 

The United States, the European Union and Russia will be closely watching Zelenskiy's foreign policy pronouncements to see if and how he might try to end the conflict.

 

Immediately after Zelenskiy's victory, the Kremlin had said it was premature to talk of Putin congratulating Zelenskiy or the possibility of the two leaders working together.

 

Zelenskiy has pledged to keep Ukraine on a pro-Western course while sounding less emphatic than his predecessor Poroshenko about possible plans for the country of 42 million people to one day join the EU or NATO.

 

The head of Poroshenko's security council said Russia's move was intended to give Moscow legal cover for deploying troops to eastern Ukraine on the pretext of protecting Russian citizens.

 

"It is actually about the Kremlin's preparations for the next step of aggression against our state -- the annexation of the Ukrainian Donbass or the creation of a Russian enclave in Ukraine," said Poroshenko, who remains president until Zelenskiy is inaugurated, likely to be next month.

 

Poroshenko urged Ukraine's allies "to prevent the worst scenario, to severely condemn the destructive and criminal actions of the Russian authorities and to strengthen the regime of international sanctions".

 

(Additional reporting by Anton Zverev in Moscow, Andrei Makhovsky and Natalia Zinets in KIev; Writing by Anton Kolodyazhnyy, Christian Lowe and Matthias Williams; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Alison Williams)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-04-25

 

[fxe1200]

Most of the Donbass folks are Russians anyhow, and the Ukrainian people living there would rather in a state with a GDP which is four times higher, than the Ukrainian one. The right step. Let the people decide , where they want to belong too.

[Jack Mountain]

Time for a referendum ...

[fxe1200]

6 minutes ago, Jack Mountain said:

Time for a referendum ...

...another one??

[BestB]

Ukraine has cut them off from everything, restrictions to travel, including money for governance, basic utilities, medical and everything else but Now Ukraine is crying Russia offers passports to Russian natives.

 

 

[BestB]

11 minutes ago, Jack Mountain said:

Time for a referendum ...

From memory, they want to be a republic or an autonomous state

[Sir Dude]

[Ulic]

Commit not to join NATO, recognize Crimea as Russian territory as it always has been in exchange for Russia leaving Eastern Ukraine. Compromise, Russia backs its allies until death do us part, just look at Assad. The West especially the US has allies of convenience that share common goals from time to time. Just look at Iran, once an ally when the despot Shah was in power, Saddam, friend, and foe, Gadaffy, the same. The West has used Ukraine to poke the Bear with the NATO carrot. The Bear will not allow it any more than the US would allow Russia to put nuclear missiles in Cuba.

[marcusarelus]

How many Thai expats will move there because the resident requirements are easy to met?

[BestB]

11 minutes ago, marcusarelus said:

How many Thai expats will move there because the resident requirements are easy to met?

Believe it or not , but living by the Black Sea is cheaper and better than Thailand. Excellent medical , education and public transport. Personal tax only 15%, bank interest around 10%

[fxe1200]

6 hours ago, marcusarelus said:

How many Thai expats will move there because the resident requirements are easy to met?

We can't take the sun with us!!!