Foreign Ministry supports idea of introducing visa regime with Russia – Betsa

Press secretary for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Mariana Betsa said this in an interview with 112 Ukraine TV channel.

"We support the introduction of a visa regime with the Russian Federation, the aggressor country... In general, we support it and believe that even the visa regime will be not enough to control the border, because visas are just one of the elements. Perhaps, in the future, there will be an introduction of entry exclusively with biometric passports with visas, registration in migration services, as in the Russian Federation, where it is necessary to register within three days," she said.

At the same time, the Foreign Ministry spokesperson clarified that several factors should be considered in the case of introduction of appropriate visa measures by the Russian Federation.

"First of all, the number of Ukrainian citizens who are in Russia amounts to 3-4 million citizens. Russia has introduced a rather simplified procedure for obtaining citizenship that is for three months and knowing the Russian language, it is a very compact procedure, and this is an important factor, as we can lose a large number of our citizens," Betsa said.

According to her, other factors include uncertainty of the issue of entering Crimea from the mainland of Ukraine and vice versa and the issue of the uncontrolled section of the border with the Russian Federation in Donbas.

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