Russia: LPR/DPR residents could soon request Russian passports - DPR's Pushilin

Citizens of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics (LPR/DPR) could soon start requesting Russian passports en masse, DPR Deputy Chairman Denis Pushilin said in Moscow, Wednesday. Speaking at a press conference on the implementations of the Minsk agreements, Pushilin noted that many of said residents are currently living without a valid passport, as he pointed to Kiev's blockade of facilities dealing with the issuing of passports in the Donbass region. Among the participants of the conference were the representatives of the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics Denis Pushilin and Vladislav Deinego; the Director of the Centre for Current Politics Alexei Chesnakov; Senior Researcher at the Centre for Regional Security and Caucasus Studies at the Moscow State Institute for International Relations (MGIMO) Nikolai Silaev, as well as the Editor-in-Chief of the Russian Reporter Vitaly Leibin. The presser was organised by Russian news agency TASS against the background of continuous fighting in East Ukraine. Dozens of ceasefire breaches by both the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the self-defence forces of Lugansk and Donetsk were reported over recent weeks, despite a comprehensive package of measures aimed at the implementation of the Minsk agreements being agreed during Normandy format meetings in Minsk on February 12.