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Ukraine Ready to Hold Talks with Russia Once Ceasefire Is in Place, Zelenskiy Says

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks during a briefing in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks during a briefing in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP)
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Ukraine Ready to Hold Talks with Russia Once Ceasefire Is in Place, Zelenskiy Says

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks during a briefing in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks during a briefing in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (AP)

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday that Ukraine would be ready to hold talks with Russia in any format once a ceasefire is in place and the fighting between Kyiv and Moscow's forces has stopped.

The Ukrainian leader also told reporters at a briefing that a Ukrainian delegation meeting officials from Western countries in London on Wednesday would have a mandate to discuss a full or partial ceasefire.

"We are ready to record that after a ceasefire, we are ready to sit down in any format so that there are no dead ends," Zelenskiy said at the briefing in the presidential office in Kyiv.

"It will not be possible to agree on everything quickly," he warned, noting numerous highly complex issues such as territory, security guarantees and Ukraine's membership in the NATO military alliance.

The talks in London, which are to set to bring together officials from the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Ukraine, come amid a flurry of intense US-led diplomatic efforts to find a way to end Russia's war with Ukraine.

Zelenskiy said he would be happy to meet US President Donald Trump later this week when they attend the funeral of Pope Francis.

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Ukraine Allows Multiple Citizenship as War Drags on

A service member of the 110th Separate Brigade of the Territorial Defense Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces fires a howitzer towards Russian troops, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, at a front line in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine June 16, 2025. (Reuters)
A service member of the 110th Separate Brigade of the Territorial Defense Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces fires a howitzer towards Russian troops, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, at a front line in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine June 16, 2025. (Reuters)
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Ukraine Allows Multiple Citizenship as War Drags on

A service member of the 110th Separate Brigade of the Territorial Defense Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces fires a howitzer towards Russian troops, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, at a front line in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine June 16, 2025. (Reuters)
A service member of the 110th Separate Brigade of the Territorial Defense Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces fires a howitzer towards Russian troops, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, at a front line in Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine June 16, 2025. (Reuters)

Ukraine's parliament passed a law on Wednesday to allow Ukrainians to have multiple citizenship in an attempt to ease a demographic crisis worsened by Russia's war and to enhance ties with the country's diaspora.

The bill was passed by 243 deputies, lawmakers said.

"This decision is an important step to maintain and restore ties with millions of Ukrainians around the world," Oleksiy Chernyshov, minister for unity, said in a social media post on Facebook after the vote.

Government officials have estimated the Ukrainian diaspora at about 25 million people. Government and analysts estimate the population in the country at about 32 million people now.

Previously, Ukrainian law did not recognize dual or multiple citizenship, meaning that ethnic Ukrainians around the world holding other passports needed to renounce their other citizenship if they wanted a Ukrainian passport.

The issue of multiple citizenship has become even more pressing since Russia's invasion in February 2022.

The war is exacerbating a demographic decline that had started years before.

In 1991, when Ukraine became independent after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the population was 52 million.

But Ukraine saw several large labor migrations in the early 1990s. With the start of the invasion, millions of Ukrainians fled the fighting. Data show that more than 5 million Ukrainians live in Europe as the war is in its fourth year.

Lawmakers said that the new law would simplify procedures for children born to Ukrainian parents abroad and also for Ukrainians who obtain other citizenship by marriage.

It will also make it easier to obtain Ukrainian citizenship for foreigners fighting for Ukraine on the frontlines.

In line with the new law, the government would draw up a list of countries from which dual citizenship was allowed.

The text of the bill does not directly ban Russian citizens from obtaining Ukrainian passports. But it mentions that the government would be able to implement restrictions related to the armed aggression against Ukraine.

Foreigners would have to pass a test to prove their knowledge of the Ukrainian language, history and constitution.