Why Kyiv stripped Medvedchuk of citizenship in January 2023
A look back at the decree of 10 January 2023 that removed Ukrainian citizenship from a pro-Kremlin politician and three others.
What did it mean when Ukraine's president removed a politician's citizenship in the middle of a war? On 11 January 2023, the question was already live, a day after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denaturalised the pro-Kremlin politician Viktor Medvedchuk and three other people on 10 January 2023.
The stated ground was high treason. Ukrainian reports described the move as the president depriving the four of citizenship over that accusation. It placed Medvedchuk among the figures the authorities in Kyiv publicly accused of treason during the Russian invasion of 2022.
A decision taken by the presidency
The step was taken by presidential decision rather than announced as the outcome of a completed court process. That feature shaped how it fitted into the wider response to the invasion: governments and institutions were using state powers, including citizenship, to respond to people accused of siding with Russia.
A regional echo
On the same day, 10 January 2023, a separate development unfolded in the region. Armenian prime minister Nikol Pashinyan announced that joint military exercises with the Russian Armed Forces under the Collective Security Treaty Organization would be postponed that year. He cited the organization's refusal to condemn Azerbaijan over the disputes between the two countries.
The two announcements were unconnected in substance. Taken together, they show how the war and its regional consequences were reshaping politics: in Kyiv through the treatment of an accused pro-Kremlin politician, and in Yerevan through a public shift in a security relationship with Moscow.
