Foreign Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin has declared that Russia, by its decision on the "passportization" of residents of certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine, creates a pretext for military intervention in Ukraine.
The statement came at Klimkin's joint briefing with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Linas Linkiavicius in Kyiv Friday, according to an UNIAN correspondent.
"We understand that this decision was made because Moscow stopped thinking that they would establish pro-Russian realities here," the minister said.
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According to Klimkin, Russia will systemically try to interfere in the internal affairs of Ukraine.
"Russia deliberately creates an excuse for interventions, including military, militaristic ones. They will say that there are Russians or Russian speakers there. Of course, we are aware of these manipulations... They will try to exploit this in the future," the minister stressed.
As UNIAN reported earlier, on April 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on the simplified procedure for issuing Russian passports to residents of the temporarily occupied Donbas.
The Kremlin explained that Putin made such a decision "to protect human and civil rights and freedoms," on the basis of "generally accepted principles and norms of international law."
