By EUDO CITIZENSHIP expert Oxana Shevel
Today the president of Ukraine signed a decree granting Ukrainian citizenship to three foreign nationals who were offered positions in the new Ukrainian government (who are U.S., Georgian, and Lithuanian citizens, respectively). The president’s press secretary reported on his Facebook page that the Citizenship Commission of the Presidential Administration considered the cases and decided that citizenship can be granted for reasons of “state interests”. As was reported on the president’s website, paragraph 26 of Article 106 of the Ukrainian Constitution and Article 9 of the Ukrainian citizenship law provided the legal basis of the decision. The law indeed allows granting citizenship to persons “whose admittance to citizenship of Ukraine is in the interest of the Ukrainian state” (Article 9 of the 2001 Citizenship law). Such persons are exempt from residency, language and income requirements, as well as from the requirement to be in possession of an immigration permit. However, they still need to submit either a declaration confirming the absence of other citizenship(s), or a written obligation to terminate other citizenship(s), unless the individual comes from the state which terminates citizenship automatically upon conferral of another citizenship (or if Ukraine signed a treaty to this effect with the state in question). A document issued by the competent authorities of the state of prior citizenship(s) confirming termination of prior citizenship(s) needs to be submitted to the Ukrainian authorities within two years of Ukrainian citizenship being granted, otherwise Ukrainian citizenship is to be terminated since Ukraine does not recognise dual citizenship.
It was not reported whether the three persons granted citizenship today have submitted a written obligation to terminate their prior citizenship(s) and the president’s press secretary did not answer questions to this effect posted on his Facebook page. At a press conference upon the appointment of the new cabinet, the three newly minted ministers-citizens stated that they have automatically lost their prior citizenship upon acquisition of Ukrainian citizenship in accordance with citizenship legislation of their respected countries.
According to sources available on EUDO CITIZENSHIP, the laws of Lithuania and Georgia do indeed foresee automatic loss of citizenship in case of voluntary acquisition of a foreign nationality, although the Lithuanian law allows for exceptions. The U.S. government, however, cannot deprive its citizens of their status if they acquire another citizenship or take up public office in a foreign state.
Addressing the new parliament today, President Poroshenko also spoke about his plan to issue a decree granting Ukrainian citizenship to foreigners (he specifically mentioned Russians and Belarussians) who are fighting on the Ukrainian side against Russia-backed separatists in the eastern Donbass region of Ukraine. With such decisions the Ukrainian authorities now face a dilemma of how to grant citizenship to foreigners for reasons of state interests while remaining within the confines of the existing law that explicitly prohibits the retention of prior citizenship by such foreigners.
For more information, see the following sources (in Ukrainian):
http://president.gov.ua/news/31682.html
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2014/12/2/7046151/
https://www.facebook.com/svyatoslav.tsegolko/posts/639979769444889
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2014/12/2/7046197/
http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2014/12/2/7046220/