OREANDA-NEWS. The Russian Embassy in Estonia on Tuesday condemned the decision of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic not to recognize Russian passports issued to residents of Donetsk and Lugansk regions of Ukraine.

“It is unfortunate that Estonia continues to fight hard for leadership in the race among the EU countries on the anti-Russian track", the diplomatic mission said in a statement on Facebook. Services, social support, health care, education and communication, doesn't contribute to improving the situation in the south-east of Ukraine".

"If Tallinn really wants to help resolve the internal Ukrainian crisis, then they would use their influence on Kiev in order to convince it to restore normal life support for the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, as provided for by the Minsk agreements", the embassy added. On the eve of the Estonian Foreign Ministry, it stated that it wouldn't recognize Russian passports issued to residents of the proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR) after April 24, 2019, if the owners of these documents weren't previously Russian citizens.

On April 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree "On the determination for humanitarian purposes of the categories of persons entitled to apply for admission to Russian citizenship in a simplified manner". The document, in particular, simplifies the procedure for obtaining Russian passports by residents of the DPR and LPR. Press Secretary of the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow will continue to issue Russian passports to residents of Donbass, despite Kiev’s plans to invalidate them.

We will remind, earlier a similar decision to achieve non-recognition of Russian passports of residents of Donbass in the European Union was made by Estonia.