Ukraine may require visa travel of Russians in 2018 - Klimkin

10:31, 22.12.2017 1 min read

Ukraine may require biometric visa travel of Russian citizens should biometric control, preliminary travel notice, and border control fail, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said in a program aired by the 1+1 channel on Friday morning.

'First there will be biometrics, then a notice of traveling to our territory, and then the third stage, i.e. control exercised on our territory [...] Should all those three stages fail, we will need a visa travel system but a biometric one," Klimkin said.

The regular visa system aims to suppress illegal immigration but there is no such problem in the case of Russia, he said.

Biometrics of Russian citizens traveling to Ukraine will be taken starting January 1, 2018, and the other two measures will be implemented later, Klimkin said.

Slightly over half of Ukrainians polled by the Rating sociological group (51%) said they did not want a visa travel system with Russia.