Residents of Ukrainian regions illegally annexed by Russia have one month to change their citizenship, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Yevhen Ivanov told the state agency RIA Novosti on Tuesday, reports CNN.

The Russians also opened a Federal Migration Office in Melitopol, Zaporizhzhia Region, where Russian documents are issued to local residents.Photo: RIA Novosti / Sputnik / Profimedia Images

“Just as it was with Crimea. Within a month, they must decide, make a choice,” Ivanov said, adding that the issuance of documents will be accelerated in the new territories.

According to the Kremlin, on Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to sign documents regarding the illegal annexation of four Ukrainian regions – the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, as well as the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions.

Thus, Putin’s promulgation of the laws will complete the final stage of the annexation process based on the Russian legal system. But the annexation is illegal under international law, and Western governments have made it clear they do not recognize these regions as Russian territory.

At the same time, the exact borders that Russia is trying to establish inside Ukraine by annexing four territories still remain unclear.

And the Russian state agency TASS wrote on Monday that one of the provisions of the annexation treaties, which have already been approved by the Russian parliament, is: “Citizens of Ukraine, other states and stateless persons living in the new regions are recognized as citizens of Russia, with the exception of those who, within one month, declares a desire to retain the existing citizenship or to remain stateless”.

Responding on Monday to a question about the introduction of visas for citizens of Ukraine in these regions, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia Yevhen Ivanov stated that “there are no such plans”, TASS also reports.

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