While the Russian army is making slow progress in Ukraine, the Kremlin chief serves the war-torn population by decree. After passport simplifications and one-off payments, Putin is now granting all Ukrainians an unlimited right of residence.
According to the Russian news agency Ria Novosti, Russian President Vladimir Putin has granted all citizens of Ukraine and the self-proclaimed, breakaway People's Republics of Luhansk and Donetsk permanent residence rights in the Russian Federation by decree. The prerequisite is the taking of fingerprints, photos and a medical examination. The right of residence also includes a work permit. Furthermore, by presidential decree, pensioners, people with disabilities and pregnant women in Russia should receive social benefits if they have fled Ukraine or the self-proclaimed People's Republics.
Only on Wednesday did Putin order money payments for Ukrainians in the occupied territories. In the occupied parts of the eastern Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv as well as in Zaporizhia and Cherson in the south, parents of children between the ages of 6 and 18 are to receive a one-time payment of 10,000 rubles - the equivalent of almost 170 euros - according to a Kremlin statement. Moscow has repeatedly been criticized for tying Ukrainians to itself with money, for example, but also by issuing Russian passports. Putin's decree coincided with Independence Day, which Ukraine celebrated on Wednesday.
As early as July, the European Union made it clear that Ukrainians with new Russian passports should expect an entry ban. The EU will not recognize such papers, said Foreign Affairs Representative Josep Borrell. By law, Russia had previously simplified the procedure for obtaining Russian citizenship for all Ukrainians. This is another blatant violation of Ukrainian sovereignty, criticized Brussels.
At the beginning of July, Putin put the regulation, which previously only applied to eastern Ukraine, into effect by decree. Since then, people throughout Ukraine have been granted Russian citizenship in a simplified procedure. The issue of Russian passports is also explosive because Russia's military doctrine justifies deployments when it comes to the supposed protection of its own nationals.
