You're reading: Poroshenko hails end to EU visa requirement, bids farewell to ‘land of slaves’ Russia

Thousands gathered on European Square in central Kyiv as dusk fell on June 10 to celebrate the introduction of visa-free travel for Ukrainians to most European Union countries.

The crowd enjoyed a concert organized by the authorities as the clock ticked down to the introduction of the visa-free regime at midnight on June 11.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko addressed the attendees, giving a speech hailing the dropping of travel restrictions – a key election promise – and including a number of digs at Russia, which has since 2014 been waging an undeclared war on Ukraine in the eastern Donbas region.

“We, the Ukrainian people and the whole of Ukraine, enter a new historic era,” Poroshenko said. “And this event symbolizes the final break of our state with the Russian Empire, and the break of the Ukrainian democratic world with the Russian authoritarian world.”

“Farewell, unwashed Russia, land of slaves, land of lords. And you, blue uniforms, and you, folks obedient to them,” the president said, quoting Russian poet Mikhail Lermentov.

The president noted that the introduction of the visa-free regime with the EU was coming on the eve of Russia’s national holiday, Russia Day, on June 12.

“And this is pretty symbolic, by the way. We are finally independent from one another – in the political, economic, gas, energy and even spiritual spheres. We are free from their bonds.”

“The only thing that is frustrating is the extremely high price, the bloody bill set by the Kremlin for our most natural right to build our lives ourselves,” the president said, referring to the ongoing war in the Donbas, where Russian-backed forces have seized control of parts of Ukraine’s easternmost oblasts, Donetsk and Luhansk.

“And we should appreciate our freedom,” Poroshenko said. “That is why I would like to address the young people – appreciate this freedom. Especially as it is now guarded, with weapons in hands, by the best of Ukrainians.”

The first “visa-free” rail and air services to the Schengen Area departed early on June 11, with Ukrainians now only needing an EU-compliant biometric passport to travel.

With such a document, Ukrainians can now travel visa-free to most EU countries. The regime does not apply to the countries outside the Schengen Area – the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland – but does apply to some countries that are within Schengen but not part of the EU, such as Norway and Iceland.

Click here to see photographs of the day’s events.