Migration Service Head Naumenko believes that multiple citizenship does not contradict Constitution of Ukraine

Head of the State Migration Service Natalia Naumenko believes that multiple citizenship initiated by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy does not contradict the Constitution of Ukraine.

Naumenko said this on the air of the national telethon, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

She noted that many law experts believe that when implementing multiple citizenship, it is not necessary to amend Article 4 of the Constitution of Ukraine, which treats the issue of single citizenship.

"For our part, we were also interested in this issue and studied the transcript of the Verkhovna Rada at the time when the Constitution was adopted and what the legislator was putting into the issue of single citizenship. From our point of view, the issue of single citizenship included the inability to have citizenship, except for Ukrainian, within the framework of the administrative-territorial structure of Ukraine. What does it mean? That there can be no citizenship of the city of Kyiv, Luhansk Region, Donetsk Region or Crimea. Actually, this suggests that this is the single citizenship of Ukraine throughout Ukraine. But the fact that a person cannot have the citizenship of another state along with Ukrainian citizenship - this was not found in the transcripts when the Constitution was adopted," she said.

Naumenko noted that Zelenskyy’s initiative is aimed at attracting as much human capital as possible - Ukrainians to Ukraine, as well as financial capital.

She stressed that it is assumed that on the territory of Ukraine a citizen with multiple citizenship should use exclusively the passport of a citizen of Ukraine.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday, January 22, introduced a bill to the Verkhovna Rada on the introduction of multiple citizenship.

According to Zelenskyy, this will allow all ethnic Ukrainians and their descendants from different countries of the world, except for russian citizens, to have Ukrainian citizenship.

Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets predicts heated discussions on the constitutionality of Zelenskyy’s initiative on multiple citizenship.

According to Article 4 of the Constitution of Ukraine, there is a single citizenship in Ukraine, the grounds for the acquisition and termination of citizenship of Ukraine are determined by law.

Changes to the Constitution during martial law are impossible.