Fans of Ukrainian visa-free freebies from Crimea warned of consequences
Russian diplomacy often cannot help Crimeans detained by Ukrainian security forces after crossing the border, because they pass through checkpoints as citizens of Ukraine.
Human Rights Commissioner in Sevastopol Pavel Butsay stated this on the ForPost Internet resource, PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
According to the Ombudsman, people themselves put their fate at risk by visiting the territory of Ukraine.
“We all know that they are crossing on the passport of a citizen of Ukraine. They either don’t take their Russian passport with them, or they take it and hide it somewhere. But when they enter the territory of Ukraine, Ukraine accepts them as citizens of Ukraine.
There were cases when Russian passports were found and they were simply torn.
Of course, this is an additional situation that becomes more complicated, because how can the same Ministry of Foreign Affairs deal with the release of a person who, according to the information of the Ukrainian side, is a citizen of Ukraine who has a valid Ukrainian passport?” - Butsay said.
He noted that when men are detained in Ukraine, families remaining in Crimea often lose their breadwinners.
“We are trying, as far as possible, to turn to organizations, to people, to give them some kind of assistance with food and related necessary goods,” Butsay said.
According to him, the authorities of the Republic of Crimea have already organized regular assistance to the families of Crimeans captured in Ukraine; a similar practice should be adopted by the government of Sevastopol.
“The Crimean government provides assistance to its citizens who find themselves in such a situation and their families. I petition that such assistance be provided in our city, since it is necessary.
No one imagined that they would find themselves in such a situation. Again, no one knows when this situation will end. At the moment, following the example of the Rezunik family, from what we could do, we wrote appeals to banks where they have certain loans, so that they could be given certain holidays until the breadwinner returns,” the Ombudsman said.
Former Verkhovna Rada deputy Vadim Kolesnichenko also criticized Crimeans visiting Ukraine, emphasizing that if they are detained, it will be difficult for Russian diplomats to fight for the release of the inhabitants of the peninsula:
“For the thousandth time I want to appeal to our residents of Crimea - we must understand and take responsibility for our actions, know that nothing just happens, we have to pay for everything. Yes, with certain difficulties, refusals of something, but when we made our choice, we understood what we were going for.
Therefore, you need to clearly understand what can be done and what cannot be done. And going there always borders on a colossal risk. Any person can be used as a tool to fight Russia.
And the worst thing is that in the international arena it will be quite difficult for us to fight for our citizens. It’s when sailors are captured, that’s one thing, when a serviceman is captured at the border, that’s one thing, but when our citizen went there on his own and voluntarily, that’s a completely different story and, alas, we have to be held accountable for that,” Kolesnichenko warned.
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