What Putin's citizenship decree and Zelenskyy's dismissals meant for Ukraine
Two decisions reported around 11 July 2022 touched on citizenship and on Ukraine's diplomatic corps.
What did two decisions reported around 11 July 2022 reveal about the pressures on Ukraine's public life? On that date Russian president Vladimir Putin signed a decree extending a fast-track process for obtaining Russian citizenship to all Ukrainians. Until then it had applied only to people living in the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic.
The decree widened the group of people eligible for the accelerated procedure from two areas to the whole Ukrainian population. The reports of the time did not say how many people might use it.
Two days earlier, on 9 July 2022, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had dismissed Ukraine's ambassadors to Germany, India, the Czech Republic, Norway and Hungary. The reports of the time gave no reasons for the dismissals, and they should not be linked to the Russian decree.
The two decisions came from different governments and concerned different matters: one was about the status of individuals, the other about how Ukraine was represented abroad. Taken together, they show that by 11 July 2022 questions of citizenship and diplomatic representation were both moving quickly.
