On 28 February 2022, the Latvian parliament adopted several amendments that enable Latvian citizens to serve in the military of Ukraine. Article 24(2) of the Latvian Law on Citizenship states that citizenship can be revoked if a citizen serves in the armed forces or military organisation of another country, but provides exemptions for several countries. The latest amendment added Ukraine to the list of exempted countries, which means that Latvian citizens who join the Ukrainian armed forces can no longer be deprived of citizenship on that ground. The amendment will come into force on 1 March 2022. 

The GLOBALCIT Citizenship Law Dataset for 2020 shows that in 70 out of 190 countries, rendering military services to a foreign country can lead to the loss of citizenship. GLOBALCIT and the Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion (ISI) will launch a joint report on citizenship stripping for security reasons later this month.  

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Featured image: Ernests Dinka (CC BY-SA 2.0)