Refusal to provide consular services will cut off Ukrainians from the country for 10 years: Dmytro Razumkov
The official website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine has published an explanation regarding the temporary restrictions on the acceptance of new applications for the provision of consular services, which will be introduced on May 18, 2024 in accordance with the recently adopted Law of Ukraine “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine Regarding Certain Issues of Military Service, mobilization and military accounting”. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs informs that from April 23 this year, new applications for consular actions from men aged 18-60 who are abroad will be temporarily suspended (with the exception of applications for registration of identity cards for return to Ukraine).
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs notes that the decision to suspend the process of providing consular services to a category of Ukrainian citizens defined by law is a temporary step due to the need to resolve issues regarding the military registration of citizens of mobilization age who are abroad, and to resolve technical issues in cooperation with other involved state authorities. which arose during the implementation of the norms and provisions of the mentioned law.
Restrictions are introduced before the adoption of the new law, and this is explained by the fact that only new applications from the category of citizens specified in the new law will not be accepted temporarily, since the term of consideration of such applications may exceed the time remaining before it enters into force. After the entry into force of the law, that is, on May 18, 2024, the process of accepting and considering applications for consular actions will continue taking into account the new requirements arising from its provisions.
Men who now live abroad, reacting to these planned events, created long queues near consular offices, wanting to issue foreign passports to Ukrainians as soon as possible. People in queues express their indignation at such a decision of government officials.
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that this decision was made in response to the new law on strengthening mobilization, which applies to men who are currently abroad. They should remember that they have obligations to the country in war. The passport center in Warsaw is now reporting that they cannot even issue ready-made documents to men because “the system is not working.”
“Now the reception of citizens of draft age has been stopped. Now we are waiting for instructions from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Now their reception is simply temporarily suspended.” – the employees of the passport center say.
However, according to Ukrainian refugees, there are currently no such restrictions for children and women. “We have two options – go to Ukraine and register for the military, or live in Europe as a ‘savager,'” they say.
People’s Deputy of Ukraine Solomiya Bobrovska reported that representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine did not participate in the discussion of the draft law on strengthening mobilization. After its acceptance, they did not explain anything to the people and simply refused to provide them with services, but
“Representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine should explain to Ukrainians the reason for the termination of consular services before doing so. Because of this, the idea that was laid in the newly adopted law on strengthening mobilization is distorted. In addition, diplomats began to punish men of draft age prematurely, because the regulatory act did not come into effect.” – said Solomiya Bobrovska on the air of the Radio Liberty Ukraine portal.
Bobrovska also explained that she understands the logic of the decision of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which became known the day before, when men of conscription age were suspended from providing consular services without warning or explanation. However, the position of the Ukrainian agency is still “absurd and very strange”, especially considering the fact that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not make any proposal during the consideration of the draft law in the parliament. Therefore, representatives of the department will soon be invited to a meeting of the National Security Committee to explain their actions.
According to the member of parliament, citizens should remember that they have, in addition to rights, also responsibilities. If you forget about it, there may be “certain consequences”.
“Everything logically falls into line in the law, because the main goal was not to ban consular actions or not to take these people away, but to have the maximum number of men registered for military service in order to see the common resource. Therefore, for me, these are some wild things, some kind of Middle Ages”, – Bobrovska added.
In turn, People’s Deputy of Ukraine Dmytro Razumkov stated in the parliament that the refusal to provide consular services will cut off Ukrainians from the country for 10 years.
“Whoever makes it now will get a passport, and whoever doesn’t make it, he will spit on him and get a passport of another state. And you will lose a whole generation”, – said Razumkov.
