THE PROBLEM OF STATELESSNESS IN UKRAINE AND THE WAYS OF ADDRESSING IT Consequences of the above-mentioned Agreements, which offered a visa-free regime for crossing the borders of the states that had emerged after the USSR breakup, were generally positive, as many individuals of Ukrainian origin used the chance to return home after 1991 and many reunited with their families in Ukraine. The story of the Muntian sisters Aliona, Liudmyla and Tetiana, who were born in 1971, 1974 and 1987 respectively, came to Ukraine from the Moldovan Soviet Socialist Republic on the basis of their birth certificates in 1989. However, since the girls were living in the Ukrainian SSR territory during the breakup of the USSR with no registration, their birth certificates still remain the only documents the women possess. Due to the complicated administrative procedures and lack of money, they have never obtained any other papers proving nationality thereby having actually become stateless. As time went by, and children were born to the sisters. When the children were young, there were almost no problems; they even received birth certificates though all the papers had a dash in the “mother” field. The situation got worse when the eldest of the children graduated from a secondary school – they realized the children could not obtain certificates of general secondary education because he they no passport. As a result, despite their high academic performance, they were not allowed to take part in school graduation exams and lost any chance of entering a higher educational institution. They became victims of their mothers’ legal situation and their only prospect was unofficial low-paid employment in their village as it is impossible to move to another town, let alone abroad, without identity papers. At present, the women and their children are cared for by lawyers of the All-Ukrainian Election Committee’s Odessa branch who help them unravel the tangle of problems, which arose due to their statelessness and the related lack of identity papers. 17