Putin (third left) attends a group photo session with Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan (centre )and other leaders at a welcoming banquet for the Belt and Road Forum at the Great Hall of the People, in Beijing. — Reuters photo
BEIJING: Russian President Vladimir Putin said yesterday Moscow was “thinking” of making it easier for all Ukrainians to obtain Russian citizenship after the Kremlin moved to grant passports in the country’s separatist east, causing uproar in Kiev.
“We are actually thinking about providing citizenship in a simplified order to all citizens of Ukraine, not only residents of the Lugansk and Donetsk republics,” Putin told the press during his visit to Beijing, referring to the unrecognised separatist republics governed by Moscow-backed rebels.
This week Putin signed a decree allowing people living in the breakaway regions to receive a Russian passport within three months of applying for one.
The move came just days after Ukraine elected comedian Volodymyr Zelensky as president. The actor, due to be inaugurated by early June, called for more international sanctions against Russia in response.
The European Union also condemned the move, calling it a fresh assault on Ukraine’s sovereignty.
Putin on Saturday said he wanted to “understand” Zelensky’s position on the conflict.
He did not exclude talks with the comedian — a political novice — with whom he is ready to “have a discussion.”
The conflict between the Ukrainian government and breakaway rebels began after Moscow annexed Kiev’s Crimea peninsula in 2014. The war has claimed some 13,000 lives. — AFP