Zelenskiy: Russian passports in Donbass are a step towards 'annexation'
https://www.reuters.com/world/ukraine-sees-russias-issuance-passports-eastern-ukraine-step-towards-annexation-2021-05-20/Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday that Russia's issuance of its passports to residents of eastern Ukraine was the first step towards annexation of the region.
"This is definitely the first step, because the same thing happened once in Crimea, Crimea residents were given Russian passports. This is a big problem," Zelenskiy told a news conference.
Russia's TASS news agency quoted official sources as saying that more than 527,000 Russian passports had been handed out in Donbass since April 2019.
Ukrainian authorities have said at least 400,000 Russian passports were distributed among residents in eastern Ukraine and the need to protect these people can be used as an excuse or a pretext for a possible open aggression against Ukraine....
