Ukraine offers citizenship to foreign volunteers joining forces to fight against Russia

In a continued attempt to defend Russia's military operation, foreign volunteers will be given Ukrainian citizenship, Ukraine's First Deputy Interior Minister Yevhen Yenin said on March 9. Foreign volunteers will be able to obtain Ukrainian citizenship if y want to, minister Yevhen Yenin said. Kyiv Independent informed that as many as 20,000 foreign volunteers have joined Ukrainian forces to fight Russia since March 6.  Ukrainian government has been appealing to foreign citizens to help fight Russian invasion. Despite immense personal risk and uncertain legal grounds, some are responding to  call. 

On Tuesday, Ukraine temporarily lifted visa requirements for foreign volunteers who wish to enter country and fight against Putin's Russia. This came after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy created International Legion of Territorial Defense and called on volunteers to “join defence of Ukraine, Europe, and world.”

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Sunday said that anyone interested in participating in ir war against Russia should contact Ukraine’s diplomatic missions in ir respective countries. “Toger we defeated Hitler, and we will defeat Putin, too,” Kuleba h said. 

Since 2014, when Russia-backed separatists seized parts of Donbas region, foreign citizens have been fighting in Ukraine. While Western governments have extended support for those who wish to join Zelensky's side, Ukrainian embassies are openly involved in recruitment of fighters.

Russia-Ukraine war

Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) on Tuesday said that since Russia's begun military operations, over 12,000 Russian forces have been killed. About 1036 armoured vehicles of different s, 48 aircraft, 80 helicopters, 303 tanks, 120 artillery pieces, and 56 MLRs were hit during combat, according to MFA data. 

On Tuesday, following Russia announcing ceasefire from 10 am (Moscow time) to provide humanitarian corridors in cities of Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, and Mariupol, war-hit country Ukraine began evacuation of civilians including foreign students from Sumy to Poltava. 

Earlier on Monday, third round of talks between Ukraine and Russia was held in Belarus which was focused on opening humanitarian corridors from Ukrainian cities under fire. As a negotiator from Kyiv spoke of "positive results", Russia disagreed on outcome and said ir expectations were "not fulfilled". 

Image: AP