Zelenskiy proposes bill allowing Ukrainian citizenship for foreign fighters

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy marked Ukraine's Day of Unity with the introduction of a draft law that allows multiple citizenships, a move that would make it possible for foreign fighters and ethnic Ukrainians outside the country to hold Ukrainian passports while not giving up other citizenship.

Zelenskiy said in an address on January 22, which marks the 1919 Unification Act of the Ukrainian People's Republic and the short-lived West Ukrainian People's Republic, that the law would not apply to "citizens of the aggressor country," a thinly veiled reference to Russian citizens.

Ukraine has been fighting to repel a full-scale Russian invasion, launched by the Kremlin in February 2022. The Ukrainian government established an officially sanctioned foreign legion just days after the invasion, with some estimates putting the number of foreigners at around 2,000.