"Do not talk!" or "Nah ... shy!"

Two years ago, Ukraine announced visas for Russians. Olga Musafirova - about how the regime works today

July 1, 2022, four months after a full-scale invasion, Ukraine officially introduced a visa regime for Russian citizens. Although they began to talk about the need for such a regime immediately after the annexation of Crimea and the appearance of “rebellious miners with tractor drivers” in Donetsk on “technology from Voentorg”, who surrounded local gastronomes with a worshiper: “crests live normally! You can’t buy this in Rostov! ”

In the fall of 2016, with the presentation of the speaker Andrei Parubiy and the Popular Party, the Popular Front intended to appeal to the government with a request to cancel the 1997 bilateral agreement between Ukraine and Russia on mutual visa-free trips. But the idea was not supported by the largest fraction of the parliament, the presidential “Petro Poroshenko Bloc”. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was not ready for the introduction of visas. The process will require significant resources, officials explained. In the office of ministers, they feared a symmetrical response from the Kremlin - millions of Ukrainians living in Russia will suffer. True, in 2015, Ukraine unilaterally abolished the opportunity for Russians to enter Ukraine according to the internal passport, and in 2018 for Russian citizens, biometric fixation was introduced during border control, which, among other things, provided for scanning of fingerprints.

A big war dilated the previous calculations and fears. The Ukrainian side has terminated the famous agreement, and the President of Zelensky reacted to the appropriate electronic petition: “This is important and relevant. Thank you for the active civic position! ” (In November 2021, a similar petition had already received the president. Then the Head of State found that the decision demanded a “analysis of all development scenarios.”) By the time, the visa-free visa with Russia ended, Kyiv did not control most of the Ukrainian-Russian border, all the checkpoints did not work.

“Politically the measure is correct. But it is unlikely to help our safety greatly, ” experts said. “A late decision.”

The State Border Service of Ukraine published , among other things, in social networks of clarification:

• Russians cannot come to Ukraine without an invitation. For entry, a foreign passport and photocopy of passport data of the receiving party also need entry;

• It is necessary to have an amount equal to 20 living wages per month - 52 thousand hryvnias (approximately 1194 euros);

• Russians who entered before July 1, 2022 must be registered at the place of residence and may remain in the country for up to 90 days;

• Russians who are on sanctions lists cannot be visited.

And most importantly, the visa is not a 100 % guarantee of border crossing. They can also refuse the entrance. Well, the technical side: consular fee - $ 65. Types of visas are standard: transit, short -term and long -term. The receipt of electronic visas by Russians was excluded.

But the commentators of the message were most interested in the question of how to be those citizens of the Russian Federation who have a view of permanent or temporary residence in Ukraine. Such, according to unofficial data, turned out to be about 150 thousand people. Will they miss the cordon? Deployed? Since February 24, the migration service ceased to extend the temporary residence permits to Russians. The “expired” was completely placed in the passport: there is nothing to shaking.

The Ukrainian embassy and consulates in Russia no longer worked. An independent international intermediary company VFS Global through visa centers in eight cities-Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Kaliningrad, Kazan, Novosibirsk, Rostov-on-Don and Samara could engage in the issuance of visas. But the company ceased its activities in Russia. As the speaker of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Oleg Nikolenko explained to the correspondent of the Air Force, the applicant of the Ukrainian visa should go, for example, to Estonia, Poland or to any other country of the European Union, to contact the Consulate of Ukraine there.

There was a nuance. To apply for a Ukrainian visa in Estonia, the Russians first needed to receive Schengen. Or fly to Kazakhstan or Moldova, where Kyiv also has a diplomatic mission. And you can get to Ukraine only through the EU or the Republic of Moldova. Task with an asterisk!

Therefore, by July 2023, only fifty of Russians became the owners of Ukrainian visas. This was announced on the air of the National Telemerathon Speaker of the State Border Service of Ukraine Andrei Demchenko. Verbatim:

“According to my information, a little more than 50 visas were issued. Basically, with the aim of reuniting the family. But during this time, not everyone used visas, since almost 45 citizens of the Russian Federation with visas were crossed the state border. Mostly women and children. ”

By August 2023, the number of visas holders increased to 62. The speaker of the Foreign Ministry Oleg Nikolenko resembled : the final decision on crossing the border was made by border guards. Further, either interest in the topic fell, or statistics were updated irregularly, or the state has accumulated reasons that did not allow all the information to give publicity. At least I could not find reports in the public plane for 2024.

If you believe the representative of the Kiev legal company, which regularly encounters the appeals of Russians (the Visit Ukraine service tourist portal talked with him on anonymity conditions), then several categories of Russian “tourists” are mostly interested in visiting the unsafe country in whose territory there are a non -safe country. Those who consider themselves opponents of Putin’s regime want to join a foreign legion and fight on the side of the Armed Forces, and those who hoped for temporary or political asylum and are ready to begin a long process of obtaining citizenship. According to the interlocutor of the portal, people who want to speak on the side of Ukraine with weapons in their hands are in contact directly with the legion of Russia, the Russian volunteer corps, as well as with the Kastuya Kalinovsky regiment. And formal moments here depend not on the migration service, but on the GUR. Therefore, it is difficult to say how many Russians ended up in the end to the entrance and how they were legendary. Another of my interlocutor confirmed:

“Those who pour into the ranks of the RDK, of course, do not receive any visas. A list is formed, people undergo a multi -stage check from the SBU - mainly so that enemies do not crawl among them. So cross the border, according to the list. "

The subtle moment is the visits of writers, public figures and other guests of Ukraine, who are not without irony here “good” or “useful” Russians. From time to time, information about their appearance in Kyiv, Odessa, Lvova enters national media. The trial begins: "Who let in and why?" Usually a unjusted ball leads to someone from the president’s office or figures close to him. The manual control regimen is immortal. And in vain the figure is trying to explain herself - they say, this Russian or Russian woman is important for Ukraine in the current situation. The active part of society is not ready for compromises of this kind. So it was with Dmitry Bykov, to whom Anton Gerashchenko “organized” the visa, a former People’s Deputy and Deputy Minister of the Interior, now a popular blogger. But Bykov, a public person, the author of the book about Zelensky, could not but light up on the TV. But only the “Department of War” by the Prosecutor General of Ukraine knew about a business trip to Kiev in Kyiv in January 2024, they also engaged in a visa. The journalist gave, under record, testimonies of the crimes of Russian troops in several regions of our country in the first weeks of invasion.

From fresh examples. On May 22–23, in Lviv, in a secret of secrecy, the so -called forum of the Russian opposition gathered. According to Ilya Ponomarev, in the past of the deputy of the Duma, there were more than forty delegates, including representatives of three Russian volunteer battalions. Local authorities learned about the forum from the news when the opposition has already crossed the border in the opposite direction. Mayor Andrei Sadovy was so surprised that he even sent a request “to the relevant authorities”: “The participants are supposedly Khodorkovsky, Kasparov, Feigin, Shenderovich and others, not very famous for me. Who knows, is this some kind of joke? " They explained to the garden that there was no Shenderovich with Kasparov, Khodorkovsky joined the event online. But the eco -activist Evgenia Chirikova really visited Lviv. The forum was also adviser to the head of the office of the President of Ukraine Mikhailo Podolyak. The sources of Novy-Europe called him responsible for the unhindered pass of the opposition "there-back." The organization was directly involved in the main intelligence department of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (GUR). Questions about visas did not arise.

In 2016, Mikhail Saakashvili, at that time, the head of the Odessa Regional State Administration, who received Ukrainian citizenship from the hands of President Petro Poroshenko, came to the Lugansk region, to the city with the name happiness. He brought the fighters of the ATO gifts from volunteers. And under the approving laughter, he established a road sign, the content of which went back to the joke with the beard: “At the Kiev station, the announcement is:“ Bastard passengers, Sho straight to Odessa, not to hide! ( "Citizens passengers who follow in Odessa, be happy!" - approx. Ed. ). Citizens passengers traveling to Moscow - no ... to rummage! ””

Behind the bridge, in happiness was the separatist “Lugansk People's Republic”, which Russia supported with weapons and manpower. A large agreement on friendship, cooperation and partnership between the Russian Federation and Ukraine continued to exist - on paper.