President Volodymyr Zelesky has ordered Prime Minister Denys Shmyal to contemplate the matter of establishing a mandatory examination for acquiring citizenship of Ukraine.

A relevant petition was filed by Vitali Kapustian on May 23, which secured 26,586 votes, far above the required number of 25,000. The originator of the petition revealed that since 2014, ever since Russia commenced its war crimes against Ukraine, an estimated 520,000 Russians have immigrated to Ukraine. With over 19,000 of those immigrants receiving Ukrainian citizenship.

Since the instigation of Russia’s invasion in February, 2022, the number of Russian citizens wanting to acquire Ukrainian citizenship has not lessened. At present, candidates do not need to know the history, laws and national language of Ukraine in order to acquire a citizenship. They only must submit a small-scale list of documents and a simple application for citizenship.

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“Such a system, with no even basic filters, allows all candidates to obtain citizenship and, in the future, not to make any efforts to integrate into Ukrainian society,” the petition reads.

Ultimately, the creator of the document proposed to establish an obligatory exam for acquiring Ukrainian citizenship, which will revolve around undertaking a test on Ukrainian history, language, understanding of the Constitution of Ukraine and the study of the National anthem of Ukraine.

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