Russia’s New Weapon in Ukraine: Offering Citizenship. Moscow has been distributing Russian passports to Ukrainians living in the regions of eastern Ukraine. Russia’s Interior Ministry says that more than 527,000 people in parts of eastern Ukraine where Moscow-backed separatist formations are waging a war against Kyiv have been granted Russian citizenship over the past two years. Ukraine has condemned the Russian naturalization of Ukrainian citizens as part of a hybrid-warfare campaign being waged by Moscow and a violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty.