Ukrainian border guards have barred approximately 5,000 Russian citizens from entering the country since the beginning of this year, Andrii Demchenko, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Border Guard Service, said on Wednesday
KIEV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th July, 2019) Ukrainian border guards have barred approximately 5,000 Russian citizens from entering the country since the beginning of this year, Andrii Demchenko, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Border Guard Service, said on Wednesday.
On November 30, the Ukrainian authorities announced they would not allow Russian males aged 16-60 into the country in response to a standoff at sea.
"Since the start of the year, almost 4,800 citizens of the Russian Federation [have been barred from entering Ukraine]," Demchenko was quoted as saying by UNN news agency.
He added that almost 14,000 foreigners had been also denied entry over the given period.
On November 25, Ukraine's Berdyansk and Nikopol gunboats, and the Yany Kapu tugboat illegally crossed the Russian maritime border as they sailed toward the Kerch Strait, the entrance to the Sea of Azov. Russia seized the Ukrainian vessels and detained their crews after they failed to respond to a demand to stop. After the incident, a criminal case on illegal border crossing was opened in Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the incident was a provocation prepared in advance as a pretext to declare martial law, which Ukraine did from late November to late December. Afterward, the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine recommended maintaining traveling restrictions and increasing control over Russians entering the country.
