Venislavsky: Residents of CADLR, Crimea with Russian passports will not lose Ukrainian citizenship

"Ukraine does not recognize the fact of foreign citizenship (in this case Russian), which individuals were forcibly imposed on, they were forced to acquire it because of certain threats to their freedom, life, normal existence in the temporarily occupied territories. We believe that these actions [of Russia] violate international human rights standards, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. So in this case, in our opinion, these documents [Russian passports] are void and, therefore, they do not entail any legal consequences," Fedir Venislavsky, MP from the Servant of the People party, President's representative in the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, said on the air of Dom TV channel, Ukrinform reports.

If after the temporarily occupied territories are returned to the jurisdiction of Ukraine, citizens declare that they were forced to acquire Russian citizenship, they will not have any negative consequences for Ukrainian citizenship, the MP explained.

As reported, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky submitted to the Verkhovna Rada a bill on multiple citizenship for Ukrainians abroad. It forbids dual citizenship with the occupying power, the aggressor country. That is, a citizen of Ukraine cannot have the citizenship of the Russian Federation.

ol