Accelerating the alienation of Ukraine’s Russia-controlled periphery,

Accelerating the alienation of Ukraine’s Russia-controlled periphery, President Putin signed a decree offering Russian passports to the estimated 3.8 million Ukrainians living in the rebel-held areas. Ukraine’s foreign ministry denounced the move as “attempts at creeping annexation” of the area, once Ukraine’s industrial heartland. President Poroshenko said in a video address: “The Russian Federation has crossed another red line, openly and disrespectfully torpedoing the peace process in the Donbas.”