Deputy Minister for Temporarily Occupied Territories Yuriy Hrymchak has stated that the purpose of issuing passports of Russian citizens to the residents of certain areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions not controlled by the government (ORDLO) is to destabilize the situation in the region and legalize militants.

At the same time, he noted that those citizens of Ukraine who receive such passports risk losing the citizenship of Ukraine.

"The Constitution of Ukraine says that a Ukrainian should have only one citizenship - the citizenship of Ukraine, therefore those people who will receive or have already receive citizenship of the Russian Federation may lose their citizenship of Ukraine," the official said.

"And I think that this will have to be done - to cancel the passports of Ukraine, foreign passports, internal passports and so on," the deputy minister added.

According to him, the issuance of Russian passports to the residents of the Ukrainian Donbas will lead to the fact that the Russian Federation will have grounds in the future to declare that it protects its citizens in the east of Ukraine. He also said having a passport of the Russian Federation will help the employees of the occupation administration of the so-called DPR and LPR to avoid criminal prosecution by Ukraine.