Ukrainian Border Guard Service: 740 foreigners banned entry to Ukraine because of unauthorized visits to Crimea and Donbas
Since the beginning of the year, 740 foreigners have been banned entry to Ukraine for 3 years because of unauthorized visits to the territories of Donbas and Crimea which are not under Kyiv’s control, reported the State Border Guard Service (SBS) of Ukraine.
According to the SBS, evidence of the unauthorized visits to the annexed territories is often established in regards to foreigners or stateless persons as well as citizens of Ukraine.
Since the beginning of the year, the border guards have drafted protocols against 600 persons based on the Article 204-2 of Ukraine’s Code of Administrative Offenses ("Violation of the rules of entry and exit from the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine").
"As a result of illegal crossing the border at closed border checkpoints, 740 foreigners were banned from entering the territory of Ukraine for a period of 3 years,” said the SBS.
The authorities reminded that violation of the rules of entry into the uncontrolled territories of the Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk regions through the checkpoints that are closed by the government of Ukraine, is punishable by criminal (Article 332-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine) and administrative (Article 204-1 and Article 204- 2 CCO) code.
Since the beginning of 2017, the State Border Guard Service banned entry to Ukraine for 70 artists who visited the Crimean territory annexed by Russia against Ukraine’s law. According to the SBS November 2017 data, 1300 foreigners were banned from entering Ukraine in connection with their visit to the occupied Crimean territory.