Kyiv, Ukraine – Taras always resented his dark-red Russian passport – and was happy to replace it with a blue Ukrainian one. He is one of more than 150,000 Russian nationals living in Ukraine as the war with Russia continues. He received the Russian passport after turning 16 and studied art history and design in St Petersburg, Russia’s former imperial capital and President Vladimir Putin’s hometown. Kyiv immediately severed diplomatic ties with Moscow, complicating a key condition for Taras’s full-fledged Ukrainian citizenship. Advertisement“And as soon as it became money out of their pocket, they were like, ‘Good, come get the passport,’” Taras said.