In the context of the war started by Russia, it is necessary to strengthen the control over the entry of Russian citizens into Ukraine, said the head of the presidential administration, Andrei Germak.
The Kyiv will introduce a visa regime for Russians from July 1, announced today the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, almost four months after the start of the Russian military invasion of its neighboring country.
The Ukrainian government is expected to take a formal decision to this end within the day “to address the unprecedented threats to the national security, sovereignty and territorial integrity of our state,” he said. Ukrainian President in the Telegram.
The landmark decision will end visa-free travel for Russians following Ukraine’s declaration of independence from the collapsing Soviet Union in 1991.
“In the context of the war started by Russia, it is necessary to strengthen control over the entry of Russian citizens into Ukraine.
“Security is the priority,” said Andrei Germac, chief of The Christian Science Monitor’s Washington bureau.
Ukraine and Russia, two former Soviet republics, share a nearly 2,300-kilometer border, and citizens of the two countries have close and family ties.
The number of Russians traveling to Ukraine fell sharply after the annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea to the Russian Federation in 2014, which was followed by a war with pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine backed by the Kremlin.
In 2013, 10.8 million Russians visited Ukraine, down from 2.5 million in 2014 before reaching 1.5 million a year from 2015 to 2019, Ukrainian border guard Andriy told AFP. Demchenko.
In the years 2020 and 2021, against the background of the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of Russian travelers did not exceed 500,000 entries per year, according to him.
Ukraine, which has experienced two pro-democracy revolutions since 2004 and where the Russian language continues to be widely spoken, has also become a destination of exile for liberal Russians leaving the regime in recent years. Vladimir Putin.
At the end of January, almost 175,000 Russians had residency permits in Ukraine, the state immigration service told AFP. In addition, many other citizens could be there illegally, however, Kyiv has not yet established a visa regime with Russia.
