Ukraine to prosecute Russians for illegal entry into the country
Deputies of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine approved the first amendment of the bill No. 7017, which calls for criminal liability for the illegal crossing of Ukraine’s state border by citizens of "the aggressor country". 241 Ukrainian MPS voted for the document prepared by the MPs Iryna Lutsenko and Artur Herasimov.
The bill approves criminal charges "for the illegal crossing of Ukraine’s state border by a citizen of an aggressor state or by a person supporting interests of the aggressor state". The punishment for violation of the law is the imprisonment for up to three years. The term of imprisonment will increase for repeat violations.
Only those persons who intend to cause damage to the national state interests of the country and cross the border outside the border checkpoints or without documents are to be held accountable.
At the same time, the Parliamentary Committee on Legislative Support of law enforcement activities noted that the document has a number of contentious provisions. The head of the committee, Andrei Kozhemyakin, suggested revising the document since it is not clear what the term "the interests of the aggressor" means. Also, the bill does not say anything about people who illegally cross the Ukrainian border, but are not the citizens of "the aggressor state".
In turn, the deputy from the Ukrainian Fatherland Party, Serhiy Sobolev drew attention to the fact that the document does not regulate responsibility for crossing the border of the uncontrolled territory of the Donbas.
Lutsenko said that in the fifth year of the war in Ukraine, there is only administrative responsibility for violators of the state border crossing. She promised to take into account the comments in regards to the bill.