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Ukraine allows multiple citizenship as war drags on
Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on June 18, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026
Global Banking & Finance Review®
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Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on June 18, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026
Ukraine's new law allows multiple citizenship to address demographic issues and strengthen diaspora ties amid ongoing war challenges.
By Olena Harmash
KYIV (Reuters) -Ukraine's parliament passed a law on Wednesday to allow Ukrainians to have multiple citizenship in an attempt to ease a demographic crisis worsened by Russia's war and to enhance ties with the country's diaspora.
The bill was passed by 243 deputies, lawmakers said.
"This decision is an important step to maintain and restore ties with millions of Ukrainians around the world," Oleksiy Chernyshov, minister for unity, said in a social media post on Facebook after the vote.
Government officials have estimated the Ukrainian diaspora at about 25 million people. Government and analysts estimate the population in the country at about 32 million people now.
Previously, Ukrainian law did not recognise dual or multiple citizenship, meaning that ethnic Ukrainians around the world holding other passports needed to renounce their other citizenship if they wanted a Ukrainian passport.
The issue of multiple citizenship has become even more pressing since Russia's invasion in February 2022.
The war is exacerbating a demographic decline that had started years before.
In 1991, when Ukraine became independent after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the population was 52 million.
But Ukraine saw several large labour migrations in the early 1990s. With the start of the invasion, millions of Ukrainians fled the fighting. Data show that more than 5 million Ukrainians live in Europe as the war is in its fourth year.
Lawmakers said that the new law would simplify procedures for children born to Ukrainian parents abroad and also for Ukrainians who obtain other citizenship by marriage.
It will also make it easier to obtain Ukrainian citizenship for foreigners fighting for Ukraine on the frontlines.
In line with the new law, the government would draw up a list of countries from which dual citizenship was allowed.
The text of the bill does not directly ban Russian citizens from obtaining Ukrainian passports. But it mentions that the government would be able to implement restrictions related to the armed aggression against Ukraine.
Foreigners would have to pass a test to prove their knowledge of the Ukrainian language, history and constitution.
(Additional reporting by Anastasiia Malenko; editing by Kim Coghill)
Ukraine's parliament passed a law allowing multiple citizenship to help ease a demographic crisis exacerbated by the ongoing war.
Government officials estimate the Ukrainian diaspora at about 25 million people.
The new law simplifies procedures for children born to Ukrainian parents abroad and for Ukrainians who obtain other citizenship through marriage.
The bill does not directly ban Russian citizens from obtaining Ukrainian passports but allows the government to implement restrictions related to the armed aggression.
Foreigners must pass a test to prove their knowledge of the Ukrainian language, history, and constitution to obtain citizenship.
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