INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Russia has provided 1.5 million passports in occupied Ukrainian areas, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin stated Tuesday.Residents of the
occupied areas informed AFP this month that they had actually been pressed into using up a Russian passport, essential for using basic
public services.Kyiv has explained the passport handouts as an effort to reduce Ukrainian identity
From October last year, nearly 1.5 million individuals got a Russian passport in the brand-new regions, Mishustin said during a government
meeting, referring to the parts of Ukraines Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson areas that are under Russian control.Moscow declares
to have annexed the 4 areas, in spite of not controlling them fully
It is important that all their residents feel real changes occurring in cities and towns, see that streets and houses are slowly being
restored, Mishustin said.Russia has for years released passports to individuals living in the eastern Donbas area held by pro-Moscow
separatists considering that 2014, in addition to in annexed Crimea.But considering that its full-scale intrusion of Ukraine last year,
Moscow has doubled these efforts.The EU has said it will not recognize Russian passports released by Moscow in illegally occupied areas of
