Radio Liberty’s Balkan Service reports that the decision on Novynskyi’s citizenship was officially published on Friday; it was signed by Serbian Prime Minister Đuro Macut. According to the publication, he was issued a Serbian passport outside the usual procedure — on the basis of a law article that allows expedited processing if it serves the interests of the state.
Serbian authorities have not yet responded to requests from RFE/RL. The publication notes that under the expedited procedure, hundreds of people have received Serbian citizenship in recent years, including Russians whom the source describes as close to the authorities.
Vadym Novynskyi is a Ukrainian businessman and former Verkhovna Rada deputy from the now-banned Opposition Platform — For Life. He was also close to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which the Ukrainian authorities still consider subordinate to the Moscow Patriarchate, while the UOC itself says it is independent.
According to Radio Liberty, Novynskyi left Ukraine in the summer of 2022 and then gave up his parliamentary mandate. In September 2025, a court in Kyiv ordered his arrest in absentia on suspicion of treason and inciting religious hatred.
In March of this year, in an interview with Germany’s Compact.TV, Novynskyi criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and said that the most important condition for Ukraine’s security is friendly relations with Russia. It was reported that in recent years he acquired real estate in Croatia. Russia imposed sanctions on Novynskyi; according to several reports, they were lifted back in 2020, and his lawyer referred to this in an official letter, arguing that such measures preclude any reasonable claims about his alleged ties to Russian structures.
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