Although several months ago the issue of the status of volunteers of the international legions and recognition of their right to Ukrainian citizenship was quite actively discussed in Ukraine, there are still numerous nuances, which make the real situation more complicated than the declarations of politicians. On the one hand, there is a new law on citizenship, on the other – the legislative base of Ukraine has previously allowed ensuring the status and security of this category of defenders of Ukraine.

However, both before and now, there remain many nuances of law enforcement that are more important than the general principle declared by President Zelensky:

“Every soldier who defends the Ukrainian state, defends our people, defends our independence, deserves recognition and maximum support. This applies, in particular, to those of our soldiers – Ukrainian legionnaires – who currently hold citizenship in other countries, but not yet in Ukraine.”

Therefore we have collected and analysed real stories of the volunteers with Russian citizenship and tried to describe their risks and threats after the end of their contracts, as well as the bureaucratic restrictions that de facto deprive them of the right to asylum in a safe country.

We offer a number of recommendations addressed to politicians and officials of European countries who can solve this problem with the institutional decisions. We believe that it is very important to do today, because it’s the best opportunity for the European politicians to demonstrate their commitment to the values ​​of democracy and human rights with real deeds, and also to show publicly the support to the most courageous citizens of Russia who are fighting Putin’s dictatorship on the front lines and, shoulder to shoulder with Ukrainians, defending democracy and the sovereignty of Ukraine.

The report is available for download at our Patreon page.

The Russian version is available here.

We invite everyone to join our advocacy campaign – distribute the report on your resources, send it to journalists, experts, politicians and officials in your countries with a proposal to discuss possible ways to support volunteers, and send your ideas and proposals for cooperation on this issue to our address proton: civic_council@proton.me.