THE PROBLEM OF STATELESSNESS IN UKRAINE AND THE WAYS OF ADDRESSING IT the procedure of admission to citizenship of Ukraine during that period: only 1 person in 1992; 31 in 1993; 22 in 1994; 38 in 1995; 241 in 199616. In 1997, acquisition of Ukrainian citizenship by returnees and their descendants increased to 1,758 individuals having acquired Ukrainian citizenship. Since 2001, with adoption of the new Law of Ukraine on Citizenship of Ukraine, which established a simplified procedure for acquiring Ukrainian citizenship by territorial origin for persons of Ukrainian origin, the numbers of Ukrainian citizenship acquisition by this category of individuals has remained high: 14,028 in 2001; 1,308 in 2002; 687 in 2003; 2,031 in 2004; 3,300 in 2005; 1,108 in 2006; 1,868 in 2007; 1,514 in 2008; 926 in 2009. Currently, the question on citizenship of deportees and their descendants is governed by Article 9 of the Law of Ukraine on Legal Succession of Ukraine17, under which all USSR citizens who permanently resided in the territory of Ukraine at the moment of the declaration of its independence became citizens of Ukraine. This provision also applies to this category of individuals18. Pursuant to this article and to Article 2(1) of the Law of Ukraine on Citizenship of Ukraine as reworded on 8 October 1991, 146,574 deportees and their family members acquired Ukrainian citizenship between 1991 and 2001. From the above, we can assert that the question of citizenship of this category of persons is regulated by the current Ukrainian legislation perhaps in the best way compared to other categories of persons who are stateless or at risk of statelessness in Ukraine. Thus, after the new Law “On citizenship of Ukraine” adopted on 18 January 2001 established the simplified procedure for acquisition of the Ukrainian citizenship for individuals of Ukrainian origin, Ukrainian citizenship has been acquired by more than 106,000 representatives of formerly deported people who returned to Ukraine pursuant to Article 8. However, the naturalization procedure remains a rather complicated and lengthy process and it is impossible to ensure equal opportunities for the realization of social and economic rights for this category of persons during the process. III. 4 Persons granted refugee status in Ukraine There may be stateless persons among persons granted refugee status in Ukraine. Currently, the question on admitting to the citizenship of Ukraine persons granted refugee status is regulated by the Law of Ukraine on Citizenship of Ukraine as amended on 6.12.2012. In particular, for persons granted refugee status 16 Statistics provided by the State Migration Service of Ukraine 17 See http://zakon4.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/1543-12 18 See http://zakon2.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/1223-18 24