Who to believe?

There is no consensus among Ukrainian news sites that write on the topic of dual citizenship.

On August 2, an article was published on mukachevo.net, with a headline mentioning over 120,000 citizens of Ukraine who hold Hungarian citizenship, while zakarpattya.net.ua mentions as many as 300,000 dual citizens. Both sources cite a statement by Anatolii Matios, Chief Military Prosecutor of Ukraine, who spoke on radio NV on the collection of data on the number of individuals with dual citizenship.

– The population of the Transcarpathian region exceeds 1.2 million people, 10 percent of them are Hungarians, that is, over 120 thousand Hungarians live in the region. The number of individuals with Hungarian citizenship significantly exceeds this figure; according to our data, their number could be up to 300 thousand – said the chief military prosecutor according to zakarpattya.net.ua.

The title of the article on mukachevo.net states that „over 120 thousand inhabitants of Transcarpathia have Hungarian passports” and therefore hold the citizenship of Hungary, and the number 300 thousand is mentioned only in the text of the article.

So who should we believe?

Of course, by the laws of mathematics, over 120,000 can mean as much as 300,000, but the acquisition of statistical data and the political statements based on it require more accurate numbers. It is also possible that there is a general ambiguity about this topic. Or of mukachevo.net is simply being careful when providing information. We can only guess, because Matios himself did not name the exact number, because that would have made him reveal the means and methods of data collection. He only added that particular attention is paid to individuals who have access to state secrets and/or hold public office.

We cannot help mentioning the comments of readers under these posts on the Internet. In fact, all Ukrainian-language comments are formulated in support of dual citizenship, some see a PR stunt behind thestatement of the Chief Military Prosecutor. Some people even openly agree with those citizens who have the opportunity to obtain dual citizenship and do not understand why Hungarian citizens are resented so much, since there are also many citizens of Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Russia and Israel in Ukraine.

Probably, the most accurate evaluation was posted by thecommenterwho compared homeland to parenting. The real mother is not the woman who gave birth to the baby and left her alone, but the one who cares for the baby. He writes that according to the statistics of recent years, Ukraine is conducting a socio-economic genocide against its citizens. In a country with a population of 52 million in 1991, 31-32 million people remained three decades later, and the population is projected to drop to 25 million by 2050. The leadership of the state should change this situation, then there would be no reason to fear that citizens tend to „peek” to other countries.

Kárpátalja.ma