Ukraine to punish dual citizenship

President Petro Poroshenko highlighted that those could lose their Ukrainian citizenship who cross the border with the passport of another country or take part in the elections of another state. In fact, he submitted a bill on Friday and asked for urgency in the parliament regarding the issue – reported nepszava.hu. Zakarpattya Online, Ukrajinszka Pravda (UP), and Hungarian karpatalja.ma gave a detailed analysis on the bill which, of course, concerns Hungarians living in Subcarpathia.

Illegal but not sanctioned

In fact, multiple citizenships are forbidden in Ukraine. However, nobody took the regulation too seriously, since it was never sanctioned. Furthermore,

the Ukrainian political and business elite is full of members that have at least one another citizenship

apart from the Ukrainian (mostly a Russian one).

Currently, President Poroshenko would like to amend the act on citizenship. According to his new bill submitted on Friday, those who exercise their rights provided by another citizenship – e.g. those who take part in another country’s elections – would lose their Ukrainian citizenship. Ukraine’s authorities will collect information regarding the issue from the other country’s institutions and local governments.

Furthermore, crossing the border with a foreign passport would also result in the loss of the Ukrainian citizenship, if border control or other public bodies registered it.

Hungarians living in Ukraine in trouble

First and foremost

those Crimean citizens are the targets

of the bill who take part in the Russian elections. However, both Zakarpattya Online and UP highlighted that the bill would apply to all citizens of the country.

Thus,

even those Hungarians should bear the consequences

who took part in the Hungarian parliamentary elections on April 8 or used their Hungarian passport to cross the border.

As we already reported, the Hungarian government frequently emphasised that dual Hungarian citizenship does not threaten Ukraine’s unity. If another citizenship runs counter to the Ukrainian unity, it is none of our concern, but we are certain that dual Hungarian-Ukrainian citizenship does not threaten the unity of Ukraine, Zsolt Németh told the previous year.

In fact, most of the Hungarians living in Subcarpathia have Hungarian citizenship besides their Ukrainian one. Furthermore, thousands of them have already left the region because of the economic depression and the brutal Eastern bloodshed. Thus, the new, strict and punishing regulation regarding their citizenship can cause the remnants of the community to