- Putin on Wednesday approved a fast-track path to citizenship for people captured Ukrainian areas.
- The decree allows Ukrainians to skirt requirements like passing a Russian language exam.
- US officials have warned Russia may hold bogus referendums to annex the territories its captured in Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin approved an express path to citizenship for people in captured Ukrainian areas, possibly hinting at future annexation.
Putin on Wednesday signed a decree giving Ukrainians living in the eastern Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions a "simplified procedure" to apply for Russian citizenship, state-run news outlet TASS reported.
According to TASS, the decree allows Ukrainians to skip the otherwise-normal requirements of living in Russia for five years, passing a language exam, and having a source of income.
Moscow unveiled a similar move in April 2019 for the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics — two separatist-controlled regions in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine. According to Euronews, hundreds of thousands of residents in the regions have received Russian passports since then.
Shortly before Russian forces invaded Ukraine in late February, Putin said he would recognize the Donetsk and Luhansk regions as independent states — escalating the tensions ahead of his full-scale, unprovoked war.
Putin's new decree is not necessarily surprising either. US officials and experts have warned that Russia plans to annex Ukrainian territory and stage "sham" referendums to try to legitimize the invasion. Russian forces previously invaded and annexed Crimea in 2014, prompting global outrage. The Kremlin also began supporting rebels in a war against Ukrainian forces in the Donbas in 2014. At the start of the more recent, full-scale invasion of Ukraine in late February, the Kremlin-backed rebels controlled roughly one-third of the region's territory. After failing to take Kyiv, the Russian military in recent weeks shifted its focus to the Donbas.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in April that "pseudo-referendums" or establishment of "new pseudo-people's republics" would derail peace talks with Moscow.
Ukraine has also fervently rejected calls for it to cede territory to Russia as part of a deal to end the war, which have emanated from figures such as former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger — who has long ties to Putin and has met with the Russian leader over a dozen times.
"Ukraine, and only Ukraine will define when and how the war ends. We exercise our right to self-defence under article 51 of the UN Charter following a brutal armed attack. President [Zelenskyy] has been clear. We don't need anyone else's land, but we won't give up on what's ours," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted on Saturday.