86 percent of the people living in Ukraine's separatist-controlled region reportedly want Russian citizenship

Eighty-six percent of the people living in Ukraine’s separatist-controlled Donbas region want Russian citizenship, according to Kirill Alizinov, the spokesman for the Russian Interior Ministry’s Central Office for Migration, citing a new sociological survey.

On April 24, Vladimir Putin signed an executive order simplifying the process of receiving citizenship for people living in the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, arguing that the Ukrainian government has abandoned the region’s residents and made it too difficult to receive civil-servant salaries and pension payments.

Ukrainian President-Elect Volodymyr Zelenskiy says the Kremlin’s decision to simplify citizenship for Donbas residents means that Russia has effectively recognized its responsibility as an “occupying power” in the region, which Moscow has denied since the beginning of hostilities in 2014.