REUTERS

Ukraine has requested the United Nations Security Council to consider the "provocative" move by the Russian Federation to simplify the procedure for granting Russian citizenship to residents of the temporarily occupied parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine.

"Russia’s decision to issue Russian passports in the occupied territory of #Donbas is a violation of the UN Charter and Minsk Agreements," Ukraine's Mission to the UN tweeted Tuesday.

"Ukraine requests UNSC to consider this provocative move," diplomats stressed.

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Ukraine's Permanent Representative to the UN, Volodymyr Yelchenko, also took to Twitter: “By order of Petro Poroshenko I have already appealed to the UN Security Council. This audacious step contradicts the Minsk agreements approved by the Security Council!”

As UNIAN reported earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin on April 24 signed a decree simplifying the procedure to grant Russian citizenship to Ukrainian nationals living in the Russian-occupied Donbas, eastern Ukraine.

The decree says the decision was made by the President of the Russian Federation "in order to protect human and civil rights and freedoms" based on "generally accepted principles and norms of international law," in accordance with Article 29 of Federal Law No. 62 of May 31, 2002 "On Citizenship of the Russian Federation."