Dual Citizens Advised by US State Department to Avoid Traveling to Ukraine
The U.S. Embassy in Ukraine warned that certain American-Ukrainian dual citizens might not be able to leave the country and advised them not to travel to the Eastern European country.
“After this change, U.S.-Ukrainian dual citizens, including those who live in the United States, may no longer be able to depart the country,” the statement said. “Ukrainian law does not recognize dual citizenship.”
As of June 1, Ukrainian dual citizens are now “treated solely as Ukrainian citizens while in Ukraine and are subject to the rights and obligations of Ukrainian citizens,” it added. “Under Ukraine’s martial law, men between the ages of 18 and 60 are not permitted to leave the country.”
Under the new rule, those who are dual citizens of Ukraine and another country—not just the United States—and who are men aged 18 to 60 also will not be able to leave the country, according to the embassy’s statement.
The U.S. Embassy stated that it is “limited in our ability to influence Ukrainian law, including the application of martial law and the mobilization law to Ukrainian citizens.”
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But it warned: “If you are in Ukraine and cannot leave the country, shelter in place and obey all local orders.”
“If you are not currently in Ukraine,” it continued to say, “we strongly recommend against all travel to Ukraine by U.S. citizen males aged 18 to 60 who also have Ukrainian citizenship or a claim to Ukrainian citizenship and who do not wish to stay in Ukraine indefinitely.
“There is an extremely high risk you will not be allowed to depart, even with a U.S. passport.”
Since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war, the U.S. State Department has advised Americans not to travel to Ukraine. The country has been under a State Department-issued “Level 4: Do Not Travel” warning.
In April, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a mobilization measure after it was passed in the country’s Parliament. It is designed to make it easier to identify every draft-eligible man in the country as Ukraine has been struggling to fend off the Russian advance.
Around the same time, Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers said that men between 18 and 60 years old who are deemed fit for military service will only be able to replace their passports inside Ukraine.
Millions of Ukrainians have fled the country since Russia’s invasion in 2022, mostly to neighboring European countries. The European Union’s statistics agency, Eurostat, says 4.3 million Ukrainians are living in EU countries, with 860,000 of them men 18 years of age or older.
“The situation at the front was worsened. As it tries to seize the strategic initiative and break through the front line, the enemy concentrated the main efforts on several directions, creating a significant advantage in its forces and means,” Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi said in a social media post.
In recent weeks, Russia has “achieved certain tactical successes in these areas, but could not gain an operational advantage,” he added, saying that Kyiv is trying to obtain new military equipment “as soon as possible,” according to a translation.
“This is directly in the United States’ national security interest,” the president said, adding that if Russia wins, “the next move of Russian forces could very well be a direct attack on a NATO ally.”
On June 1, local officials in Ukraine said that Russian forces hammered Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with a large-scale drone and missile attack on the same day, injuring 19 people.
The Ukrainian military reported that it had downed 35 out of the 53 missiles launched at targets across the country overnight on June 1, as well as 46 out of 47 attack drones.
Injuries were reported by officials across the country, including in Ukraine’s western Lviv region and the central Dnipropetrovsk region. Twelve people, including eight children, were hospitalized after a strike close to two houses where they were sheltering in the Kharkiv region, said Gov. Oleh Syniehu in a statement.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
