Ukraine to introduce law allowing people to have multiple citizenships

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on Monday that he will submit a draft bill to parliament, or the Verkhovna Rada, allowing people to hold multiple citizenships at the same time.

“Today I am submitting to the Verkhovna Rada a key draft law that will allow the adoption of comprehensive legislative amendments and the introduction of multiple citizenship,” Zelenskyy said in a video address on the occasion of the country’s Day of Unity.

Once approved, Zelenskyy said the law would allow all ethnic Ukrainians and their descendants living abroad to obtain citizenship, except those who already have Russian nationality.

The president said foreign volunteers fighting alongside the military against Russian forces in the ongoing war will also be able to obtain Ukrainian citizenship under the proposed law.

“For everyone who can feel that 'being in Ukraine' means 'being at home.' Not as tourists, but as citizens. Citizens of a great, united, single Ukraine,” he added.

Zelenskyy said he signed a decree “on the territories of the Russian Federation historically inhabited by Ukrainians.”

“Today we must take steps not only to strengthen the unity of Ukraine and our people, but also to act for the unity of rights and freedoms, the truth about Ukrainians, the truth about us, and the truth about our history,” he added.

“This is the restoration of truth about the historical past for the sake of Ukraine's future,” the president noted.​​​​​​​