* This report was written in Russia, where law restricts coverage of Russian military operations in Ukraine
MOSCOW, July 11 (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed a decree extending a simplified naturalization procedure to all Ukrainian citizens, according to a document published on the government website.
The simplified procedure for acquiring Russian citizenship has so far only concerned residents of the self-proclaimed breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine, as well as the regions of Kherson and Zaporizhia, occupied by the Russians, the state news agency TASS reported. (Reuters report, French version Valentine Baldassari, said by Sophie Louet)