Ukraine enables multiple citizenship

On 18 June, the ultimate Council (RN) adopted at second reading a law regulating the possession of multiple citizenship (in favour of 243 deputies, against 19, and 9 abstentions). The fresh law allows any foreigners to get a Ukrainian passport as part of a simplified procedure, without having to quit the existing one. So far, receiving citizenship has been conditional on giving up specified relationships with a abroad state. However, the regulations adopted concern only selected countries listed on the list, excluding nationals of states recognised as aggressor, occupier or non-recognising the territorial integrity of Ukraine.

In turn, Ukrainians will have the chance to get a passport from another country without the request to renounce Ukrainian, even if they receive it voluntarily (i.e. as a consequence of a naturalization request). This practice was besides limited to the countries listed. Multiple citizenship will not be possible for judges and officials. Until now, obtaining the passport of another country has had to notify the authorities and renounce Ukraine's citizenship.

This government fits into the fresh policy of the authorities towards Ukrainians abroad. Despite the almost certain signing of it by president Volodymyr Zelenski, it is unclear whether it will enter into force – due to possible non-compliance with the constitution. Support for the task has been taken into account by the government's doubts formulated by the opposition and NGOs, which have usually been ignored.

Comment

• The passed regulation is part of Kiev's efforts to improve relations with citizens abroad. The Ministry of National Unity was established in December 2024 (see Ukraine creates a ministry for contacts with diaspora), and in April this year the government approved solutions facilitating the renewal of passports abroad by men of draft age. This is simply a crucial change to the previously inconsistent and frequently unfavorable policy towards Ukrainian refugees and pre-war migrants. The multiple citizenship bill adopted is already the 5th task proposed by Zelenski. The president's request for it justifies the request to keep ties with cultural Ukrainians surviving abroad. This is intended to bring them closer to their return to the country and to partially address their demographic problems. Ukraine in the face of a demographic disaster).
• The draft raises legal doubts as Article 4 of the Constitution of Ukraine provides that only 1 citizenship may be held. For this reason, the RN has directed the bill to the Constitutional Court, which has not yet given a ruling on the substance – for respective months its functioning has been paralysed by the deficiency of adequate judges. He besides expressed doubts about the Chief technological and Expert Department of the RN – he pointed out that having multiple citizenship could pose problems in solving issues related to the military service of specified people (including reducing the state's defence capacity by avoiding service by people with multiple citizenship), their taxation or providing diplomatic protection. The current regulations remained in practice a fiction – Ukrainians most frequently did not inform the authorities about obtaining another citizenship, realizing that state authorities do not have tools to verify the number of passports. At the same time, in most EU countries, having multiple citizenship (even in the case of naturalisation) is acceptable and does not usually origin problems described by the Department.
• The bill was supported by the ruling organization and opposition but for Batkiwszczyna Julia Tymoshenko, which called it an anti-Constitution “project to destruct the Ukrainian people”. Initially, the act was besides disapproval by European Solidarity (ES) Petra Poroshenko. Members demanded introduction for those seeking citizenship as part of a simplified examination procedure of the language, past and government of Ukraine. This proposal was yet taken into account so that ES supported the project. The amendments besides alleviate the criticisms of NGOs and any of the opposition to the rules that may have led to the automatic deprivation of citizenship of persons subject to forced passportisation in areas occupied by Russia. The success of voting on the bill is thus due to the inclusion (in this case constructive) of opposition requests by a parliamentary majority, which is not a standard in the RN.