Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko plans to put forward proposals to amend Ukrainian migration laws to liberalize the procedure granting Ukrainian citizenship and political asylum to Russian citizens who are being persecuted in Russia.

"The president has informed [the public] on the intention to initiate legislative amendments and simplify the procedure of admitting to citizenship and providing political asylum for persons persecuted in their homeland, particularly Russians," the presidential press service has reported.

Poroshenko apparently announced this while presenting a Ukrainian passport to journalist Kateryna Sergatskova who was born in Russia and has been living in Ukraine for many years.

Sergatskova in turn said that Russians who want to assist Ukraine "should have an opportunity to do this at a legitimate level, [so they can in] live [and] develop Ukraine and themselves."

Since the beginning of the occupation of Crimea and the aggression in Donbas, 27-year-old Sergatskova has been actively covering the events in Ukrainian and in some Russian media outlets, including news portal Ukrainska Pravda, which was co-founded in April 2000 by slain journalist Georgy Gongadze, as well in Focus Weekly, Ukrainian-published Esquire Monthly and Russian portal Snob.ru.