Photo from UNIAN

Chief of Ukraine's Permanent Mission to the United Nations, Ambassador Serhiy Kyslytsya says Russia has issued over 200,000 passports to Ukrainians living in the occupied parts of Donbas.

"Russia also pursues illegal passportization in the temporarily occupied territories of Donbas, which has now reached an industrial level – more than 200,000 persons were issued Russian passports there," the envoy told a UN Security Council (UNSC) meeting in New York City on February 18.

Read alsoMFA Ukraine condemns Putin's decree on expedited naturalization of Ukrainians in Donbas

Видео дня

As UNIAN reported earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin on April 24, 2019, signed a decree on a simplified procedure for granting Russian citizenship to residents of Russia-occupied districts of Ukraine's east.

On May 1, Putin signed another decree under which more categories of Ukrainian citizens are able to obtain Russian citizenship with the use of the simplified procedure, in particular, these are citizens of Ukraine who do not have citizenship of another state, as well as stateless persons who were born and permanently resided in Crimea and left the peninsula before March 18, 2014, as well as their children, spouses, and parents.