“Migration Policy for Belarusians Unchanged, russians Temporarily Will Not Receive Any Documents,” the State Migration Service

Currently, the State Migration Service does not review citizenship documents received from russians; however, the migration policy vis-a-vis citizens of belarus remains unchanged.

Natalia Naumenko, Head of the State Migration Service of Ukraine, stated this during her briefing at Media Center Ukraine — Ukrinform.

“We paused dealing with citizens of russia and belarus. So far, the migration policy vis-a-vis citizens of belarus has not changed. We will start taking documents from them again. The citizens of russia who are already in possession of temporary or permanent residence permits will be able to keep using them and stay in our country. However, the State Migration Service and law enforcement agencies monitor the situation regarding the issue of new permits to find out if they are a threat to Ukraine to find out those that can engage in some criminal acts against our country. We realize that this issue needs to be addressed. Currently, we are working on a document to specify how we will deal with the russian citizens in the future,” she said.

Natalia Naumenko added that a simplified procedure was introduced to grant citizenship to foreigners fighting for Ukraine, “First of all, I am talking about those who signed a contract with Ukraine’s Armed Forces; the military record card is already treated as a temporary residence permit. There are many options for legalizing foreign volunteers in the territory of Ukraine. A volunteer needs to get in touch with a unit of the State Migration Service. However, we keep in touch with the Ministry of Defense on an ongoing basis, and we do our utmost to process the documents as soon as they give us information about a specific person.”

Read more: https://mediacenter.org.ua/news