Despite having their passports confiscated by Russian officials, Ukrainian citizens can still enter Europe

Olena Roshchina – Friday, 22 April 2022, 16:06

Russian officials are confiscating the passports of Ukrainian citizens who had been forcibly deported to Russia and issuing them with documents similar to a migration certificate. However, the citizens of Ukraine can still enter the countries of the European Union with the help of volunteers in Russia and the Office of the Ombudsman of Ukraine.

Source: Liudmyla Denisova, Commissioner for Human Rights of the Verkhovna Rada [Parliament] of Ukraine, on Nastoyashcheye Vremya TV broadcast; Ukrinform

Details: The Ombudsman’s Office currently has information from Russian volunteers and deported Ukrainians that Ukrainian citizens are being deported to Chuvashia [the Chuvash Republic, a federal subject of the Russian Federation]: in particular, to areas near Cheboksary [the capital of Chuvashia], the village of Shomikovo, and others.

Ukrainian citizens are known to have their documents confiscated.

According to Denisova: "Their passports are confiscated. They are confiscated in filtration camps.

For example, we know of a family that was moved to Suzdal, Vladimir Region [of the Russian Federation]. And then, when some state office workers reach them, they are issued a migration certificate. And then they have to use this migration certificate when they go somewhere."

Details: When asked whether Ukrainian citizens can travel to the European Union with this certificate, Denisova said that the Ombudsman’s Office, among others, is currently working on this issue, and there is already "positive experience" in this regard.

According to Denisova: "Volunteers [in Russia] send us lists of those citizens of Ukraine who want to leave [Russia]. We check this list against our migration and border services data. And when we can confirm that these are our citizens, we pass on their information to the Narva border checkpoint [Narva is a city in Estonia on the border with the Russian Federation] and to our consul.

The last case we had was a family of seven, three of them children, and they came [to Narva], they were met there, their documents were checked and they were allowed to enter into Estonia. There they were met by our consul, by the Ukrainian community, and now they can move around freely there."

Earlier: Liudmyla Denisova said that Russia has begun forcibly issuing Russian passports to Ukrainian citizens deported from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine into Russia.