Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has signed a decree that requires Russian citizens to present international passports when entering Ukraine, news agency Unian reports with a reference to the government press service.
There was a need to strengthen controls on the Ukrainian-Russian border and ‘introduce European rules for crossing the border, including for the citizens of the Russian Federation’, Yatsenyuk said.
The government has passed a decree to terminate certain provisions of the agreement between the government of Ukraine and the government of the Russian Federation on visa-free mutual travel of citizens.
“We withdraw internal passports [of Russian citizens] and birth certificates as [documents that can be used] for crossing the Ukrainian state border,” the Prime Minister said.
Yatsenyuk recollected that once Russian President Vladimir Putin had requested [that Ukraine] introduce a mechanism for crossing the state border only with international passports.
“We took note of [Putin’s] request. Now Russian citizens will need to have international passports [to enter Ukraine],” he said.
According to Yatsenyuk, such measures will help to significantly strengthen border controls and protect Ukraine’s national security interests.
