Putin says Russia may offer passports to all Ukrainians

Bloomberg

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he may extend an offer of citizenship to cover all Ukrainians after he sparked controversy by ordering passports to be made available to people in areas of the country controlled by pro-Moscow separatists.
Russia’s offer of citizenship is “not only to the people who live” in the rebel-held areas of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Putin told reporters in Beijing.
“We are generally thinking to provide a simplified citizenship procedure to Ukrainian citizens.”
It’s unclear how many Ukrainians would take up Putin’s offer amid deepening divisions between the two neighbours after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and backed separatists in Ukraine’s east in a war that’s killed 13,000 people in the past five years.
Ukraine called for “increasing diplomatic and sanctions pressure” on Russia by the international community after Putin issued his decree ordering the creation of a fast-track procedure for residents in separatist areas to claim passports.