Kuleba asks OSCE to prepare report on issuance of Russian passports in eastern Ukraine

"Today I took the advantage of a visit of OSCE Chairman-in-Office and the chief monitor of the SMM and asked them to prepare a thematic report on Russia's issuance of passports to Ukrainian citizens in certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions," Kuleba said at a joint briefing with OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland Zbigniew Rau in Kyiv, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

According to the minister, this is a major systemic problem that should be addressed not only in the context of the situation in Ukraine.

"We must ... clearly record this case and the consequences it entails for the state, which resorts to such a step of passportization, so that further on, for years to come, anyone who tries to repeat this Russian experience will think twice before taking such a step," Kuleba emphasized.

During a meeting with the U.S. Congress members on January 18, President Zelensky said that Russia continued to issue its passports massively in the occupied Donbas and that the Kremlin could escalate under the pretext of "protecting Russian citizens."

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