Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) Secretary Oleksandr Turchynov has said Ukraine should introduce a visa regime with Russia for security reasons.
“My opinion – yes [it is necessary to introduce a visa regime]. Unfortunately, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not support this position. They want to protect of the interests of our citizens. We do have a lot of migrant workers in Russia. They were forced to leave and work there because of difficult circumstances here. But I want to state one obvious fact: we are at war with Russia and we should strictly control any movement across the Ukrainian-Russian border,” he said in an exclusive interview with Interfax -Ukraine.
According to Turchynov, Russian special services are actively working with all groups of Ukrainian citizens on their territory.
“And if a person is of some interest for them, they start recruiting work. If he has the courage to refuse, he is just thrown into jail, calling him a criminal or a saboteur of Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry. I think such a provocation was attempted against Ukrainian journalist Sushchenko and many others,” Turchynov said.
Turchynov said many Russian agents are working against Ukraine, having the right to move freely across the border.
“Today, our country isn’t divided by the border, but the disengagement line with the aggressor, which they could turn into a frontline at any moment. Therefore, we must strictly control any border crossing. And the visa is one of the monitoring tools. We need not only a visa, but clear rules for crossing the Ukrainian-Russian border, documenting and checking everyone who crosses it,” the NSDC secretary said.
He said at present foreign passports are used for entry and exit.
“But, I will reiterate once again: we need a very rigid visa policy with Russia. First we should take into consideration the country’s interests, despite the problems of Ukrainian [migrant workers in Russia]. We should have a visa free regime with Europe, but a visa regime, without any exceptions, with Russia,” Turchynov said.
