In June 2019 Russia started giving Russian passports to the inhabitants of the DPR and Luhansk People's Republic under a simplified procedure allegedly on "humanitarian grounds" (such as enabling international travel for eastern Ukrainian residents whose passports have expired). According to Ukrainian press by mid-2021 half a million Russian passports had been received by local residents. Deputy Kremlin Chief of Staff Dmitry Kozak stated in a July 2021 interview with ''Politique internationale'' that 470 thousand local residents had received a Russian passport; he added that "as soon as the situation in Donbass is resolved....The general procedure for granting citizenship will be restored."