Russian singer not allowed into Ukraine over visit to the Crimea
Russian singer Lolita Milyavskaya was denied entry to Ukraine and removed from her train because the artist had visited the Crimea in 2015. The singer talked about it on Sunday on her Instagram.
"I'm in Konotop; I was taken off the train at four in the morning, because I was not allowed to enter Ukraine. Over visiting Kerch in 2015", - explained Lolita Milyavskaya. Konotop is a city in the Sumy region, where customs and border control takes place for passenger trains going to Kyiv.
According to Milyavskaya, she was not traveling for a performance, but rather on a personal matter - to visit her sick daughter, and was carrying medicine.
"My daughter has been studying at a Ukrainian school in Kyiv since the first grade; my mother has lived there all her life. Now I went for a day to see a child who fell ill, I went with gifts, with medicine - my mother needs medicines at her age. In the evening I had to return back," she explained in an interview with TASS news agency.
Milyavskaya also noted that she is already on the train from Odessa to Moscow. "I must say that even the border guards have been giving condolences, everything is very tactful," said the singer.
In this case, according to Lolita, the action regarding her removal from the train appeared to be planned. "The situation is that, probably, I was expected. As soon as the train arrived at the border station, a very polite young man immediately approached me and took my passport; it was 4 am. He was gone for a long time; we only heard scraps of telephone conversation that said "yes, Milyavskaya is here, waiting for instructions." And then they brought two papers that had been printed in advance, probably, and stamped the passport indicating that for three years I was forbidden to enter Ukraine. They explained that in 2015 I entered ‘onto temporarily occupied territory’ on the wrong side of the border."
Lolita stressed that over the past two years, she had repeatedly entered the territory of Ukraine unhindered, including to film video clips.
Oleg Slobodyan, a representative of the State Border Service of Ukraine, confirmed this information. According to him, the actress admitted that she visited the territory of the Crimea: "Thus, on the basis of the legislation of Ukraine, she was denied the right to visit Ukraine." He also confirmed that Milyavskaya was banned from entering Ukraine for three years.
Anton Heraschenko, Advisor to the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, also commented on the incident. According to him, "(Milyavskaya’s) illegal entry for a tour in the Crimea" was recorded and published by volunteers of the Myrotvorets project.