President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky considers the passportization of residents of the occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions to be the first step towards the annexation of the territories.

"This is definitely the first step, since the same thing happened once in Crimea. Crimean residents were issued Russian passports. This is a big problem," Zelensky said at a press conference, answering a question from the Interfax-Ukraine agency's correspondent about the Russian passportization of ORDLO residents.