On 28 January, the Parliament of Ukraine has passed a law, enabling the country to grant citizenship to foreigners fighting in its armed forces. Foreign nationals will be eligible for citizenship three years after signing a contract with Ukraine’s military and residing in the country. 

The adopted change (changes to Article 9 of the 2001 citizenship law) exempts foreigners serving in the Ukrainian armed forces from some but not all standard naturalisation requirements. Specifically, fighters are not exempt from the requirement to relinquish their prior citizenship in order to acquire Ukrainian citizenship. All foreign fighters have the required length of residency shortened from 3 to 5 years, and are exempt from the requirement to have immigration permit.  In addition, foreign fighters who were awarded an official state award are further exempt from language and income requirements.

Read more in the Kyiv Post, the text of the amendment (in Ukrainian) and consult our country profile page for details of current and past citizenship legislation in Ukraine.