Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decision Wednesday to ease the process of granting Russian citizenship to residents of separatist regions of eastern Ukraine, a few days after the election of new Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelinsky.
The decree, which was posted on the Kremlin website, targets residents of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, which separated from Kiev in 2014 and are governed by rebels backed by Moscow.
According to the decree, residents of the two regions will be entitled to Russian citizenship within three months of applying for it.
The decree "aims at protecting the rights and freedoms of the person and the citizen and is based on generally accepted principles and the norms of international law," the decision said.
The conflict between the Ukrainian government and separatist rebels began after Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014. The war killed some 13,000 people.
Ukraine elected Zelinsky last week. He promised to "revive" peace talks with separatists, in which Russia and the West are involved.
The leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany signed peace agreements in Minsk in 2015 aimed at ending the conflict, but the fighting continued, and no end to sight.
