Chairman of the State Migration Service of Ukraine Maksym Sokoliuk has said the legalization of dual citizenship in Ukraine is necessary to "fill the country with people."
"We need to fill Ukraine with people to develop our country," he told the Ukrainian-registered media outlet European Pravda in an interview.
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"Dual citizenship is a kind of a program for immigration into Ukraine. We are losing population, we have lost a lot of economic migrants. Therefore, we must invite certain categories of migrants: 'Come to Ukraine'... But the slogans 'Come!' are not enough. We need an economic program that encourages them to do this," he said.
According to Sokoliuk, the first step toward this has already been taken, namely presidential bill No. 2590 has been submitted to the Verkhovna Rada for consideration.
"Now it's being determined how the new procedure will be drawn up, but certain things are already clear. The constitutional norm on 'single citizenship' will remain: it means we will continue to perceive people as citizens of Ukraine, despite the fact that they also have a passport of another state. And the change will be that we will not demand they give up foreign citizenship to obtain a Ukrainian passport," Sokoliuk said.
He emphasized there would be some restrictions in relation to the countries of migration risk, which include Russia as the aggressor state.
