Foreign Ministry: Situation with Polish consulate in Lutsk not to influence visa issuing to Ukrainians

The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine hopes that the situation with the dismissal of all consuls at the Polish consulate in Lutsk (Volyn region) will not influence the process of visa issuing to Ukrainians in the region.

"The Polish side promised us that no changes will take place. The consulate keeps working in a normal regime," the ministry's spokesman Oleksandr Dykusarov said at a news briefing on Tuesday, Aug. 14.

He added that Poland is investigating in the violations of its employees and will draw conclusions later.

As reported, on August 10 the Foreign Ministry of Poland fired all employees of its consulate in Lutsk and the consul general was dismissed following a visa scandal.

"It [the dismissal] is connected with the violations that occurred in the process of visa issuing that were discovered in the consulate. The consul general was dismissed, as were five other consuls that were involved in the process," Director General of the Foreign Service of the Polish Foreign Ministry Miroslaw Gajewski said.

He said that the consuls deliberately issued visas to "certain groups of clients." An investigation discovered that a company that received documents for visas created an artificial queue.

The prosecutor's office of Katowice (Poland) is investigating into the case.

Spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of Poland Marcin Bosacki, in turn, said that the situation in Lutsk will not influence the temp of issuing visas to Ukrainian citizens. He also apologized for "shameful behaviour of several consuls."

Earlier, Polish media reported that a criminal group in the Consulate General of Poland in Lutsk issued Schengen visas to people that had no right to receive them, and was allegedly involved in human trafficking.