Yesterday at 23:51
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy supports the introduction of dual citizenship for Ukrainians who live outside their homeland.
He said this at a meeting with students, teachers and representatives of the expert community at Stanford University (California, USA) on September 2, UA reports.
According to him, the legislation on dual citizenship in Ukraine cannot be universal. It is a difficult question.
“I am in favor of dual citizenship. Ukrainian parliamentarians are considering this issue. But it is very important – is it really relevant today. Because there are difficulties. Regarding the temporary occupation of our Ukrainian peninsula. You know the truth that there is a passportization, it was long, the passportization of citizens of Ukraine on the territory of Crimea with Russian passports was carried out for more than 20 years. Now there are parallel things going on in the temporarily occupied part of Donbass – about 600,000 Russian passports have been handed out in our Ukrainian territories, which are now occupied” – the president said.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted that in peacetime, parliamentarians could quickly vote on this issue, making it a priority, in particular for those who have Ukrainian origin, for the Ukrainians, whose large diasporas live in the United States, Canada, and all over the world.
“Therefore, the issue is very difficult because there is passportization” – the head of state noted.
The President stressed that due to the listed difficulties, it is necessary to build legislation on dual citizenship correctly. The approach should be different for each country, for each society.
To remind, the Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration Oleksii Reznikov said that Russia is spending USD 5 billion on the maintenance of the occupied territories annually.
