Ukraine’s president-elect, Volodymyr Zelenskiy who won a landslide victory in Ukraine’s presidential election in April has mocked Russia’s offer to give passports to his countrymen, saying the document would provide “the right to be arrested”.
He, however, rejected the idea in a Facebook post while also pledging to give citizenship to “suffering” Russians.
President Vladimir Putin, earlier this week signed a decree offering people in eastern Ukraine’s separatist territories passports.
He later said that he was contemplating extending the scheme to all Ukrainians.
But Mr Zelensky – a former comedian with absolutely no political experience and who was elected just last Sunday – said that he did not believe that many of his countrymen would take up the offer.
He said, “Ukrainians are free people in a free country.”
Instead, he offered citizenship to “all people who suffer from authoritarian and corrupt regimes, but firstly to the Russian people who suffer most of all”.
Mr Zelensky also said, “The Facebook post was written in both Ukrainian and Russian so that everyone can hear us”.
Relations between the two countries further worsened this week as Ukraine’s parliament just passed a law mandating the use of the Ukrainian language for public sector workers.
However, Russia being unhappy with the move says that the move discriminates against Russian speakers in Ukraine – for many, particularly in eastern regions, Russian is still the first language.
The new tensions has added to the challenges facing Mr Zelensky, who ousted Petro Poroshenko by a landslide.
On Wednesday, the Russian leader, President Vladimir Putin announced the passport scheme would be applied to Donetsk and Luhansk, the self-declared republics which were seized by Russian-backed separatists in 2014 just after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine.