The legislation of Ukraine should be respected by everyone, regardless of citizenship, religion or belonging to a particular cultural trend, said Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba, commenting on the situation with Hasidic pilgrims who are trying to get into the country, despite the closure of borders in connection with the coronavirus pandemic.

"Firstly, there is Ukrainian legislation, which everyone should respect, regardless of citizenship, religion or belonging to a particular cultural trend. Secondly, indeed, a crisis situation was created, but not on the entire Ukrainian-Belarusian border, I want to emphasize, but only at the checkpoint 'Novi Yarylovychi.' When we looked at the entire map of our checkpoints with Belarus, no other checkpoint had such a crisis. Moreover, some foreign citizens arrived at the border, saw that they could not enter Ukraine, turned around and drove back. Everything was calm and civilized," Kuleba said at a joint briefing with the Bulgarian Foreign Minister in Kyiv on Thursday, answering a question from Interfax-Ukraine.

He said that Ukraine keeps in touch on this issue with Belarus and Israel.

"Yesterday we communicated with the Belarusian side on this matter and clearly conveyed to them the position that I have just voiced. We are also in touch with Israel, and I gave instructions to work through all diplomatic channels in order to minimize any misunderstandings on this issue," said the head of the Foreign Ministry.

Kuleba also congratulated all Hasidim on the upcoming holiday of Rosh Hashanah.

"You know that Rosh Hashanah is recognized in Ukraine as an official holiday, we highly honor it, and I, taking this opportunity, would like to congratulate the Hasidim all over the world that this big bright holiday will come sonn," he said.