Zelensky initiates bill on multiple citizenship
The president spoke of this in an address to the nation on the occasion of Unity Day, marked on January 22, Ukrinform reports.
"Today, I am tabling in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine a key bill, which will allow for adopting comprehensive amendments to our legislation, introducing multiple citizenship," Zelensky said.
According to Zelensky, this will allow all ethnic Ukrainians and their descendants from other countries to obtain Ukrainian citizenship. "Of course, except for the citizens of the aggressor state," the president added.
Zelensky noted that today Ukrainians are fighting not only for the unity of the two banks of the Dnipro, as was the case in the last century. Today, the unity of Ukrainians covers both hemispheres, where the Ukrainian diaspora has proven the power of its Ukrainian roots and its right to hold a Ukrainian passport.
"We are all in this fight. And today this applies not only to both banks of the Dnipro. Today, the unity of Ukrainians covers both hemispheres, in every corner of which on February 24 words were heard: ‘I am Ukrainian’ (in Ukrainian and other languages – ed.). They were heard on all the continents where our people live. Those, who with the outset of a full-scale war, regardless of their place of residence, birth, or passport, affirmatively said: ‘I am a Ukrainian’. And they proved by action. Our multi-million-strong diaspora, our lobbyists for Ukraine all over the world. Those who raises, finds, packs, and delivers aid needed for our victory. All those who did not forget their roots and do not let the world forget about Ukraine. All those in whose veins Ukrainian blood flows and in whose chest beats a free heart. Ukrainians by origin, who have long proven that they are Ukrainians by in spirit. And after years of waiting, they should finally become Ukrainians holding a passport as well. At the legislative level," the President emphasized.
He emphasized that the introduction of multiple citizenship will allow for granting a Ukrainian passport to all those who, during different emigration waves, were forced to leave their native land, ending up in Europe, the USA, Canada, Asia, or Latin America, all those who help Ukraine despite being hundreds or thousands of kilometers away from their native land.
According to the president, foreign volunteers who came to Ukraine’s defense, all those who fight for Ukraine’s freedom as for their native Motherland, will also be able to obtain Ukrainian citizenship, and Ukraine will become such Motherland for them, too.
"For everyone who will feel that being in Ukraine means being at home. Not as tourists, but as citizens – of our great, unified, and united Ukraine, for whose freedom we fight. We fight for the right to be Ukrainians. And the corresponding decision is one of the elements of such freedom, one of the possibilities of realizing such a right. The right to be a Ukrainian," Zelensky emphasized.
As Ukrinform reported, at the end of December, President Volodymyr Zelensky said he supported the idea of multiple citizenship.
Photo: President’s Office
