OREANDA-NEWSWashington noted that the decision followed three days after the election of a new president in Ukraine, who expressed willingness to work with Russia to end the conflict in the Donbas.

The United States condemns the decision of Russian President Vladimir Putin to simplify the granting of Russian citizenship to residents of certain territories in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine. This is stated in the statement of the official representative of the US State Department Morgan Ortagus, published on the website of the department. “Russia, with the help of this extremely provocative action, is intensifying the attack on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine,” Ortagus said.

She clarified that Putin’s decree creates a "serious obstacle to the implementation of the Minsk agreements and the reintegration of Donbass." “The Minsk agreements signed by Russia require the full restoration of the control of the Ukrainian government over Eastern Ukraine,” she said. In her statement, the territories of Donetsk and Lugansk regions are called “controlled by Russia”.

The statement emphasizes that the decree of the Russian president followed just three days after the elections in Ukraine. “President-elect Zelensky repeatedly expressed his readiness to seriously engage with Russia to implement the Minsk agreements and end the conflict in eastern Ukraine,” said Ortagus in a statement. “Now it's up to Russia. She must decide whether she wants to continue to escalate tensions or to fulfill her Minsk commitments, ”the State Department spokeswoman said.

Earlier, Kurt Walker, the State Department Special Representative for Ukraine, made a similar statement. He also pointed out that by his decision to simplify the granting of citizenship to the residents of the DPR and the LPR, Russia undermines attempts to implement the Minsk agreements. The representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, in response to this, remarked that Washington should “respond uncompromisingly” to the words of Zelensky, who opposed granting Donbas special status and amnesty for the militias.