Ukrainian Foreign Minister Opposed Passenger Traffic Termination with Russia

“We have to understand how to control those who travel and what way, but if we prohibit visiting relatives, it is a matter of humanity”. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said that he did not share the Ministry of Infrastructure’s initiative on passenger traffic termination with Russia. “Surely, we have to consider the limitation of any aggressor’s influence. But I want us to be consistent. If we say that such transport connection shouldn’t exist, how do we treat those hundreds of thousands and millions of Ukrainians, who go to Russia, do we have to declare them betrayers? We have to realize the reality. Yes, we are at war with Russia but even during war millions of Ukrainians are on the territory of Russia, and not all of them stay there because they like it, but on personal grounds – relatives, earnings. We have to observe this issue as a whole, but not through the political slogans”, he said. To clarify the question if he is against the Ministry of Infrastructure’s initiative, Klimkin said that he was ready to discuss it, but “in composed manner”. “I am ready to discuss this problem, but it must be solved in terms of a fight with Russia as an aggressor state and people should not suffer from that. We have to understand how to control those who travel and what way, but if we prohibit visiting relatives, it is a matter of humanity”, he said. It should be recalled that the Minister of Infrastructure Volodymyr Omelyan stated that documents on passenger traffic termination with Russia had been prepared and should be considered either at a government meeting or the National Security and Defense Council. LB.ua