I mentioned this a week or so ago - I hoped it was not true but this article carries a little more weight - it appears ???
KIEV, April 5 (Itar-Tass) - Ukraine intends to dump the visa-free regime with Europe. “We shall cancel soon the visa-free regime with Europe and shall gain much by this. This will happen possibly even before the Prague summit on May 7,” said deputy head of the presidential secretariat and the president’s representative in the country’s parliament Igor Popov live over the Svoboda (Liberty) radio station.
According to him, “law enforcement bodies complain that they catch ‘a criminal element’ each quarter because Europeans come to us without visas.” “Upon coming to Ukraine, a foreigner shows a passport at the border – ten seconds – and he is gone. Later one finds out in the database that he should not have been let in.
As a result, he is searched for all over Ukraine, but, since he has come in without a visa, he is not on the database,” the president’s representative added.
He understands at the same time that such actions “will prod Europeans to cancel visa-free regimes for Ukrainian citizens”.
In turn, speaker of the Ukrainian parliament Vladimir Litvin deems it expedient to impose payment for the entry in Ukraine at border passage points on citizens of countries, including the European Union, issuing payment visas for Ukrainians.
Speaking in an interview with the Ekho Moskvy radio station, he said: “Ukraine has introduced a visa-free regime and gets nothing from this. I suggested lawyers draft a proposal on imposing at border passage points not a visa regime, but payment for the entry.”
Litvin noted at the same time that the payment entry should be not only for EU residents, but also for the countries, taxing an appropriate payment for visas from Ukrainians.
According to the speaker, the imposing of payment for the entry would resolve financial problems of maintenance of Ukrainian embassies abroad.
USA will not be effected.
They are having a poke at West Europe for not relaxing their entry criteria for Ukraine Citz.
Another example of the idiots running Ukraine.
Brains of dead maggots !!!!!!!
They are on their knees financially as it is, so why go and through another obstacle in the way of Tourism that gives revenue.
I travel on a British Passport when I visit Kiev, so I will now have to go back to using my NZ Passport and will need to apply for a Visa. A painful process - via Canberra in Australia and for memory a reasonable cost
well im sure there is something you can do maxi since you are married to a ukranian citizen.
Look for a residence stamp maybe I know you are entitled to that now.
So, the reason is the reciprocity of entry, not the criminal element that it is attracting, as stated in the article. But Americans probably have a worst criteria than anyone.
How is a visa application going to change that, for a visa application Ukraine will use the same 'criminal' database as they use at the immigration point of the airport of entry.
Perhaps they need the revenue back that visa applications generate.
Stupid idea!!!
ITS ALL ABOUT MONEY! £££
NO WONDER THE GIRLS WANT TO SCAM US< IT ALL STARTS AT THE TOP!
The country is corrupt and going bankrupt, they all have there hands in the till
While its clear that Ukraine hoped for reciprocity with the EU regarding lifting visa restrictions no mutual easing occured. In fact the EU now is grouping Ukraine together with Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, and Belarus in the Eastern Partnership Program that seems to deal with all of these coutries in the same way which seems to discourage the prospects Ukraine had toward a visa-free program.
Its likely that this is why Igor Popov made the statement he did. And its unlikely that this has anything to do with any criminal elemet entering the coutry. Though I did find one source that seemed to suggest that as opposed to a resurgence of the visa requirements there may be some sort of a bioidentification (retina imaging or fingerprint) put into place for the same purpose(???)
The fact remains though that the US is one of the hardest countires for a typical Ukrainian to get into and that hasn't changed either. Why WOULDN'T that be likely to change at the same time?
Because Ukraine is run by America - in a "back seat driver" sort of way.
Ukraine will never do anything anti direct towards the US.
Ukraine also wants as much assistance and backing from West Europe as possible right now. For financial reasons and also to keep the Kremlin at bay. They are using the Gas Transit System to their full advantage and now things like this are a message to West Europe "don't forget about us"
They (Ukraine) are using the criminal aspect as reason for this change, that’s total BS.
Also there is the childish aspect - Victor Y (President) is on the way out - he knows this for sure. He is going to undo a few things like this. He introduced the Free Visa Entry (one of the few good things he did) A bit like the child smashing his toys to stop other enjoying them after him !!!!
Yuschenko hopes Ukraine and EU have clear plan on visa-free regime talks
Ukrainian President Viktor Yuschenko has said he hopes that by June, Ukraine and the European Union will have a clear plan for holding visa-free zone talks.
Yuschenko made his comments at a joint press conference with European Parliament President Hans-Gert Pottering in Kyiv on Monday.
"Starting from June 4, 2009, we will have a plan with all the steps required for Ukraine's transition to visa-free relations with Europe," Yuschenko said.
He noted that currently four groups are working on the plan. According to the president, the talks will revolve around the issues of optimizing visa-issuing procedures.
He said that most issues are of an administrative character.
Pottering said that Europe does not want to be separated from the rest of the world, but has to worry about the safety of its citizens.
He said that practical issues, including the visas, should be thoroughly considered.
He's got to be dreaming !!!
IF EU give what he wants - there would be NO one left in Ukraine within a month. No way will EU consider this. They could reduce application cost and ease processing times though !!!