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R2P told about the statelessness situation in Ukraine during a session in the European Parliament

October 1, 2025

Sofiia Kordonets, Head of the Assistance to Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Stateless Persons in Ukraine programme direction of R2P, spoke at the European Parliament during The ABCs of Statelessness: Mapping the Challenge in and Beyond the EU session. The event was organised by the Apatride Network, an organisation whose members are stateless persons, with the support of Members of the European Parliament. 

Participants discussed statelessness, its causes, related problems, and possible solutions during the session. Sofiia Kordonets spoke about the statelessness situation in Ukraine, the challenges these people face due to the war, and the risks of statelessness for people leaving the occupied territories.

Dozens of thousands of children born in Crimea, Donetska and Luhanska oblasts remain without documents issued by the Ukrainian state. R2P supports a draft law that simplifies the birth registration procedure for children born in the temporarily occupied territories since the occupation began.

Additionally, all state archives in the occupied territories are inaccessible to the State Migration Service and other Ukrainian state institutions, or have been destroyed. As a result, statelessness is becoming even more widespread due to the war. According to a study by R2P, 236,000 people in Ukraine are at risk of statelessness. 

Sofiia Kordonets also pointed out that such individuals, if they manage to enter EU countries in search of safety, cannot obtain temporary protection on an equal footing with Ukrainian citizens due to their lack of documents. That is why very often they cannot return to Ukraine or regularise their status in the European Union.