Ukraine will open eight visa centers in Russia

Ukraine will open visa centers in eight cities of Russia before August 1 this year. This was reported on Thursday by the Consular Department of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry. “Between June 15 and August 1, new Ukrainian visa centers will start working in different parts of the world, which will provide services to foreigners related to requests for visas to Ukraine,” the agency informed in Facebook. It is noted that 56 such centers will be opened, eight of them in Russia (Moscow, St. Petersburg, Rostov-on-Don, Kaliningrad, Novosibirsk, Samara, Kazan and Yekaterinburg). The Foreign Ministry said that foreigners living in the countries where the centers are operating will be able to submit applications for Ukrainian visas in a “convenient format” and, if desired, use some additional services (photocopying, translation and copying of documents, registration of health insurance policies, courier services, SMS-information, servicing in halls of high comfort). At present, a visa-free regime exists between Russia and Ukraine, but from January 1, 2018, Ukraine introduced biometric control for foreign citizens crossing the border, including Russian citizens. To get into the country a person shall possess a biometric passport. In addition, people entering Ukraine were obliged to fingerprint. In addition, on March 21, the President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, put into effect the decision of the National Security and Defense Council, which instructed the Cabinet to develop a mechanism for preliminary electronic notification of the intention to visit the country for Russian citizens and countries of so-called migration risk. Earlier, the head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, Pavel Klimkin, stated that Kiev could introduce a visa regime with Russia if the biometric control mechanism did not work. Source: TASS