Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi on Monday thanked Ukrainians living abroad for their support during the Russian invasion and announced that he would propose amending the country’s Constitution to allow dual citizenship for both them and foreigners fighting for Ukraine, reports Reuters.

Volodymyr Zelenskyi with Ukrainian generals and members of the Cabinet of MinistersPhoto: Pool Office of the President of Ukraine / Zuma Press / Profimedia Images

The Constitution of Ukraine does not grant Ukrainians the right to dual citizenship, so millions of people of Ukrainian origin living abroad cannot obtain Ukrainian passports.

In a seemingly symbolic gesture on Monday in honor of the unification of Eastern and Western Ukraine in 1919, Zelenskyi announced that he would submit a bill to the parliament on the legalization of dual citizenship.

“Today, I am submitting to the Verkhovna Rada (Kyiv’s unicameral parliament) a key draft law that will allow the adoption of broad legislative changes and the introduction of multiple citizenship,” Zelenskyy said in a press release.

“And this will allow all ethnic Ukrainians and their descendants all over the world to have our citizenship. Of course, except for the citizens of the aggressor country,” he explained.

Ukraine is trying to regroup after last year’s failure

His statement came as the Ukrainian president increasingly calls for unity in the face of Russian aggression, as the war seems to have no end in sight and the offensive that Kyiv had pinned its hopes on last year has failed.

On Monday, Zelenskyi said on social networks that the proposed reform should benefit “foreign fighters who came to defend Ukraine, those who fight for the freedom of Ukraine, as for their Motherland.”

Thousands of foreigners have arrived in Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, to fight against the invading forces. Several Russian units are also fighting on the Ukrainian side, condemning the regime of Vladimir Putin.

Zelenskyi’s government has also developed a bill that makes important changes to the process of mobilizing Ukrainians into the Armed Forces in the context of the need to replace lost troops and rotate personnel who fought at the front for almost two years.

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