Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree simplifying the procedure for granting Russian citizenship to residents of the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions of Ukraine, the Russian TASS news agency reports.

Earlier, Vladimir Rogov, a member of the pro-Russian Main Council of the Pro-Russian Civil Military Administration of Zaporozhye, said that “the Zaporozhye region has only one future, it should become part of Russia and should become a full-fledged region of the Russian Federation. We don’t need any gray areas. We do not need the Zaporozhye People’s Republic. We want to be part of Russia, as we have been for hundreds of years.”

He stated that Zaporozhye has always been a developed region of the Russian Empire and its inhabitants “are Russians with their own mentality, so it will take several months to fully adapt”, noting that a growing number of residents of the region are in favor of rapprochement with Russia. He explained that the method of uniting and joining the region to Russia would be determined after “the liberation of its central city, that is, the city of Zaporozhye.”

On May 11, Kirill Strimosov, deputy head of the pro-Russian military-civilian administration of Kherson (southern Ukraine), pointed out that “the referendum legally held in Crimea was not accepted by the international community,” stating that “there will be an appeal from the leadership of the Kherson region to Russian President Vladimir Putin to include the Kherson region part of the Russian Federation,” the Russian news agency TASS reported.