President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky responded to a petition to ban Russian citizens from entering Ukraine in the next 50 years. The text of the response of the head of state is published on the website of electronic petitions.

“The President of Ukraine consistently supports steps aimed at strengthening the regime for exercising control over the entry of Russian citizens into the territory of Ukraine. In development of the supported electronic petition, by the Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine dated June 17, 2022. No. 692 terminates the Agreement on visa-free travel for citizens of Ukraine and the Russian Federation and introduces temporary restrictions on crossing the state border of Ukraine by citizens of the Russian Federation - residents of the border regions of the Russian Federation. The visa regime with Russia has been in effect since July 1, 2022,” the President noted..

According to the message, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine was invited to continue relevant work, taking into account the development of the situation and the need to protect the national interests of our state..

The petition appeared on the website on May 23, its author, Andrey Kuzmin, proposed to completely close entry to Ukraine to all Russians for the next 50 years and not to issue residence permits to Russians, except for those who fought on the side of Ukraine in the Russian-Ukrainian war. The required 25,000 votes were received by the petition on August 8.

In August, Zelensky called on Western countries to announce an entry ban on all Russian citizens..

On August 31, the EU decided to completely suspend the visa facilitation agreement with Russia. However, there is no unity in Europe on the issue of stopping the issuance of visas to Russian citizens.