"For the last six months Romanian envoys have been calling upon local residents of near-border villages to recognize themselves as Romanians during the next all-Ukrainian population census. In return Romania promises to issue Romanian passports under beneficial conditions, which will give a possibility to travel around EU visa-free," TSN TV channel reports.
Countrymen, not overburdened with patriotism, see only benefits for them. "We'll be able to go to Italy without paying five thousand euro," some migrant workers say and admit they would sign as Romanian citizens during the next population census in Ukraine in order to get Romanian passports.
"The third part of the near-border village population has already become Romanian citizens. All advertisement boards are full of offers regarding issuing Romanian passports," the TV channel says.
Officially, the population of Chernovitski region is about one million people: 75% are Ukrainians, 12% are ethnic Romanian and 7% are Moldavians. But official documents of Romanian state that Ukrainian Bukovyna is populated with 20% of Romanians. Simple arithmetic shows that Moldavians have been equated with Romanians.
Despite the fact that double citizenship is forbidden in Ukraine, there are no legal methods to punish owners of two passports or to deprive them of one of his passports. Requests and official notes of Ukrainian Foreign Ministry have been ignored by Romanian authorities.
