CITIZENSHIP AS AN ELEMENT OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL AND LEGAL STATUS OF A PERSON AND A CITIZEN IN THE DONETSK PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC AND THE LUHANSK PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC

One of the inalienable features of the state is citizenship, since the existence of the state cannot beensured solely through the constitutional consolidation of the general characteristics of the state and society.It is the presence of persons who have a stable legal connection with the state that ensures the real functioningof public authorities and civil society, turning them from legal structures into functioning legal institutions.In 2014, the Lugansk People's Republic and the Donetsk People's Republic adopted Declarations of Sovereignty,the purpose of which was to mark the moment of formation of states separate from Ukraine. Consequently,the formation of new states predetermines the raising of the question of the status of persons living in theterritories of the Lugansk People's Republic and the Donetsk People's Republic, and their citizenship. Theconstitutional and legal status of the relevant persons was transformed following a qualitative and (or)quantitative change in their citizenship, which entailed not only a different scope of rights, freedoms andduties of a particular individual, but also the content of the principles of the constitutional and legal statusof an individual, on which the essential filling the position of the individual in society.