Putin fast-tracks Russian citizenship for residents of Ukrainian areas under Russian control.

President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Wednesday opening a fast track to obtain citizenship for Ukrainian residents of areas controlled by the Russian military, according to documents published on an official website, a further step toward annexing territory in southeastern Ukraine that Russia has occupied.

The decree extended to residents of the Kherson and Zaporozhzhia regions a faster method for obtaining Russian citizenship that was established in 2019 for residents of the so-called Luhansk and Donetsk people’s republics, two rump states created by the Kremlin and recognized as “independent” right before the February invasion. Read more

@nytimes