With Russia seeking to increase its population, the Kremlin has looked towards former Soviet nations as a source of migrants. The plan seems to have come to fruition in 2020, with 409,549 Ukrainians receiving a Russian passport.
Last year’s figures are an almost 40 percent increase on 2019’s, and mean the number of Ukrainian citizens who obtained Russian documents in the past four years is nearing the one million mark, at almost 900,000. The increased uptake in Russian nationality began in April 2019, when President Vladimir Putin signed a decree making it easier for residents of the unrecognized Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics to receive a passport. The breakaway regions are internationally recognized as part of Ukraine, including by Moscow.
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