Over 13,000 residents of Luhansk and Donetsk regions living in areas not controlled by Kyiv have received Russian passports, and Ukrainian authorities have identified a significant number of them and questioned some of them, Ukrainian Chief Military Prosecutor Anatoliy Matios said.
“We have the full picture, and we are now conducting an inquiry to identify everyone who has received such citizenship in the parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions – these are large figures,” Matios said on Radio NV on August 2.
“At the present time, we in fact possess information on over 13,000 people, a significant number of them have been identified, they’ve crossed the contact line,” Matios said.
Investigators are acting legitimately, and some Ukrainians who have applied for Russian passports were questioned while passing through the checkpoints to cross the contact line in Donbas, he said.
It had been reported earlier that Russian President Vladimir Putin had signed a decree on July 17 to entitle not only residents of the areas in Donetsk and Luhansk regions not controlled by Kyiv but also everyone who has lived in these two regions to apply for Russian citizenship.
