Ukrainian residents in Russia without legal grounds to stay must determine their legal status within the next 6 months, or they will have to leave the country. According to a presidential decree issued in Russia yesterday, President Vladimir Putin ordered Ukrainian citizens in Russia to either legalize their immigration status or leave the country by September 10th. As reported by The Moscow Times, Ukrainians without legal grounds to stay or reside in Russia must determine their legal status within the next six months, or they are obligated to leave the country. The decree is expected to apply to Ukrainian passport holders from Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporijya, which Russia annexed in 2022, and Crimea, which was seized in 2014. PRESSURE FOR RUSSIAN CITIZENSHIP In recent years, Russian officials have been pressuring Ukrainians living in occupied territories to obtain Russian citizenship. Putin stated earlier this month that the government had nearly completed the distribution of mass Russian passports in these regions last year. According to Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev, 3.5 million Russian passports have been given to Ukrainian citizens living in the territories captured by the Russian army. Ukraine has criticized Russia’s “passportization” process as illegal and a severe violation of its sovereignty. Western governments and human rights groups condemn this move, with the EU not recognizing these passports as valid travel documents. Putin’s decree comes after a series of migration laws that make it easier for Russian officials to deport immigrants went into effect last month. The latest decree also requires foreign citizens arriving in the occupied Ukrainian territories before Russia’s annexation in September 2022 to undergo drug and HIV tests before June 10th.