Putin expands fast-track Russian citizenship to all of Ukraine as fighting rages on

As Russian missiles struck a key Ukrainian city, Russian President Vladimir Putin expanded a fast-track procedure for obtaining Russian citizenship to all Ukrainians on Monday, another effort to strengthen Moscow's influence over war-torn Ukraine.

Until recently, only residents of Ukraine's separatist eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as well as residents of the southern Zaporizhzhia and the Kherson regions, large parts of which are now under Russian control, were eligible to apply for the simplified passport procedure.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Klueba said Putin's signing of a passport decree, which also applies to stateless residents in Ukraine, was an example of his "predatory appetites."