The President of Ukraine promised to issue Ukrainian passports to residents of the Donbas and the Crimea
President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko gave instructions to issue Ukrainian passports to the residents of the Crimea and the self-proclaimed DPR and LPR. He said this during a meeting on the preparation for the entry into force of the visa-free regime with the European Union, 112 Ukraine TV reports.
"If problems with issuing passports are objectively raised to those who are in the occupied territory (the territory of the Donbas which is not controlled by the authorities of Ukraine – Ed.), or in the Crimea, we need to analyze our normative base," he said. "They cannot be left without passports," the Ukrainian leader emphasized.
He gave orders to urgently submit for consideration to the government of Ukraine the question of issuing old-model passports if there are no grounds for issuing biometric passports to the inhabitants of the Crimea and the Donbas. This matter would require agreement with the Security Service of Ukraine and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the country, the president said.
In mid-May, Poroshenko said that residents of the uncontrolled areas of the Donbas, as well as residents of the Crimea, could not make short-term visits to the European Union without visas. "But they will be able [to do so] after these regions are returned to Ukraine," the head of state said.
He stressed that Ukraine should have “a very responsible attitude to every biometric passport that it issues." Earlier, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said that residents of DPR, LPR and the Crimea would be able to use the visa-free regime on general grounds if they had a Ukrainian biometric passport.