The decree of the President of the Russian Federation, which approves simplified procedures for leaving Ukrainian citizenship and acquiring Russian citizenship, is contemptible and shows Russia's unwillingness to negotiate.

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs stated that the decree signed by Putin on 26 December confirmed his desire of the Russian leadership to continue the war, annex the territory of Ukraine, forcefully assimilate and wipe out the Ukrainian nation.

"The forced imposition of Russian citizenship on citizens of Ukraine, who found themselves in inhumane conditions and were deprived of the fundamental right to freely choose citizenship as a consequence of the Russian aggression, reaffirms the criminal nature of the Russian totalitarian regime," reads the statement. 

Putin's decree is aimed at citizens of Ukraine who resided or currently live in the temporarily occupied parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson Oblasts.

"The procedure for issuing Russian passports to Ukrainian children and adolescents between 14 and 18 years of age who were forcibly moved to the territory of the Russian Federation without the consent of the recipients causes particular indignation; it is a flagrant violation of fundamental human rights and evidence of the genocide of Ukrainians by Russia," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs emphasised.

The Ministry regards this document as yet another Russian crime against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, which grossly violates the Ukrainian Constitution and laws, the current norms of international law and Russia's international obligations.

"The consequences of this and other worthless normative acts of the Russian Federation against the citizens of Ukraine will not have any legal consequences, and will never be recognised by Ukraine or the vast majority of UN member states. The decree supplements the list of crimes in the course of Russia's armed aggression, which will be considered within the framework of the international tribunal against the leadership of the Russian Federation," says the statement.

Ukraine has called on the UN member states to restore the application of the UN Charter on the issue of the legitimacy of the Russian Federation's presence in the UN, to deprive the Russian Federation of its status as a permanent member of the UN Security Council and to exclude it from the United Nations as a whole.