What happened in Ukraine-related politics on 24 June 2025?
A look back at the political developments that framed 24 June 2025, from citizenship reform to recognition of the Crimean Tatar deportation.
What was the political backdrop on 24 June 2025? In the days leading up to that date, three developments touched Ukraine and its neighbourhood: a citizenship law in Kyiv, a parliamentary recognition in the Netherlands and a prisoner pardon in Belarus.
Dual citizenship in Ukraine
On 18 June 2025, the parliament of Ukraine approved a law allowing multiple citizenship for Ukrainians. The measure was presented as an attempt to ease a demographic crisis caused by the Russian invasion.
The Netherlands and the Crimean Tatars
On 20 June 2025, the parliament of the Netherlands recognised the deportation of the Crimean Tatars by the Soviet Union in 1944 as genocide. The deportation was carried out from 18 to 20 May 1944 under Soviet authorities, supervised by Lavrentiy Beria, then chief of Soviet state security and the secret police, and ordered by Joseph Stalin. At least 191,044 Crimean Tatars were deported by cattle train from Crimea to the Uzbek SSR, several thousand kilometres away. Even Communist Party members and Red Army soldiers were among those removed.
A pardon in Belarus
On 21 June 2025, the Belarusian president, Alexander Lukashenko, pardoned several opposition figures, including the opposition leader Siarhei Tsikhanouski. The pardons followed a deal brokered by the US special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg.
Taken together, the reports from 18 to 21 June 2025 show a week in which Ukraine's legislature addressed the demographic consequences of the war, a European parliament took a position on a historical deportation, and diplomacy involving the United States produced a release of political figures in Belarus.
