Invading Russian troops have announced that all residents of Kherson Oblast will have the right to receive Russian citizenship, and the region will be given the same coat of arms it had when it was part of the Russian Empire, the pro-Kremlin news agency RIA Novosti writes.

“We will integrate (Kherson) as much as possible into Russia,” said Kirill Stremousov, the Russian-appointed “deputy head of the military-civil administration of the region.”

“All residents of Kherson Oblast will have the right to obtain Russian citizenship, Russian passports,” he said.

The “new coat of arms” depicts a black two-headed crowned eagle grasping in its claws a golden cross. It is similar to the one that the region had in Tsarist times.

Earlier it was reported that the Russian-appointed “governor” of Kherson Oblast, who is suspected of treason, said that he did not intend to hold a “referendum.”

On April 19, the Chief Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine announced that the Russians were preparing sham referendums to “legalize” the occupation administrations in the temporarily occupied areas.