Miller Law Firm’s partner Artem Krykun-Trush comments on the law that allows Ukrainians to have a second citizenship without losing their Ukrainian one, which has already passed the parliamentary vote and is awaiting the President’s signature.
Why is this solution necessary?
- There are more than 7 million Ukrainians outside of Ukraine who may lose their legal ties with the state without this provision.
- The law strengthens ties with the diaspora and provides more flexibility in the face of war and related emigration.
The main change is that Ukrainians abroad will be able to officially obtain citizenship of another country and still remain citizens of Ukraine.
The law also provides for a simplified procedure for obtaining citizenship for foreigners fighting for Ukraine.
The law does not apply to persons who have citizenship of Russia, Belarus or other states that support armed aggression against Ukraine. Dual citizenship is prohibited for them.
There is only one exception: for those who support Ukraine and are subject to political persecution. The law provides for a separate regulation for such cases, as Russia does not actually allow voluntary renunciation of citizenship.
At the same time, lawyers draw attention to the difficult situation of residents of the temporarily occupied territories who were forced to obtain passports of the aggressor state. According to Ukrainian law, such acquisition of citizenship is an offense – but these people remain citizens of Ukraine.
That is why it is important not to introduce an automatic ban on multiple citizenship for all such cases, but to establish clear verification procedures to distinguish between forced acquisition of citizenship and deliberate collaboration.
Artem Krykun-Trush, Partner, Head of White-Collar Crime, Compliance and Investigations Practice, shared his opinion in a commentary for Radio Liberty:
“We need to check and establish whether a person was a collaborator. In this part, the draft law is not finalized, because we are actually separating from ourselves all citizens who have received a Russian passport. A deeper approach is needed here – clear verification procedures should be prescribed, rather than introducing a ban by default.”