Foreign nationals who are seeking posts in the Ukrainian government have submitted applications for receiving Ukrainian citizenship and abandoning their previous nationality, the head of the Bloc of Petro Poroshenko faction in parliament, Yuriy Lutsenko, has said.

"The first test of the seriousness of intentions of foreign experts to help [Ukraine] is the submission of applications for acquiring Ukrainian citizenship," he said, when asked whether it was true that foreigners have already been granted Ukrainian citizenship.

Lutsenko said that Ukrainian law envisages a period of two years to obtain citizenship of Ukraine.

"Today we are planning to introduce legislative changes and reduce this period so that all experts, who have proved to be effective in reforms, could be able to receive Ukrainian citizenship more quickly," he said.

One of the conditions for obtaining Ukrainian citizenship for foreigners is the absence of citizenship of another country (a declaration), as well as permanent residence in Ukraine (five years) and permanent residence in Ukraine (two years for the husbands and wives of Ukrainian citizens).