Kiev Closes Over 20 Crossing Points at Border With Russia

Sputnik News

20:35 20.02.2015(updated 20:58 20.02.2015)

Ten of the closed crossing points are located in Luhansk region, two in Donestk region, with nine closures in Sumskaya region, one in Kharkiv region and one in Chernihiv region.

KIEV (Sputnik) – Ukraine has closed 23 crossing points on its border with Russia, a decree published on the official website of Ukrainian government showed Friday.

The decree to close the border crossings was adopted by Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers on February 18, but was only published on February 20.

Ten of the closed crossing points are located in Luhansk region, two in Donestk region, with nine closures in Sumskaya region, one in Kharkiv region and one in Chernihiv region.

The Cabinet of Ministers assigned the country's Foreign Ministry with informing all diplomatic missions of this decision.

Earlier in February, the Ukrainian government said that Russian citizens would require external passports to enter Ukraine starting from March 1, 2015. Under a bilateral agreement made in 2007, Russians could use a national identity document or an internal passport to travel to Ukraine. Kiev, however, decided that the old agreement creates 'chaos' and prevents the Ukrainian authorities from keeping a reliable record on how many people are coming to Ukraine.

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