Ukraine’s ambassador to Israel, Yevgen Kornichuk, said today (Saturday) in an interview with the media in Kiev that Ukraine is considering temporarily suspending the visa exemption for Israelis coming to the country, due to restrictions it claims Israel imposes on the entry of future Ukrainians into Israel.
“Israel allows Russian citizens unrestricted entry, as well as Belarusians,” he said in an interview. “On the other hand, Israeli citizens invented an electronic visa for Ukrainian citizens.”
He stressed: “It hurts a lot. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry and the President’s Office tell me this is unacceptable, and we are now considering whether to suspend the visa waiver for Israelis in response. Maybe now it will not be felt, but before Rosh Hashanah the Israeli government will feel it “- he said, referring to the trip of tens of thousands of Breslav followers to Uman.
The ambassador told Itamar Eichner from Ynet and Yedioth Ahronoth: “The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry is considering the move because we have asked the Israeli Ministry of the Interior to cancel the electronic visa. If you check the numbers, you will see that there is no basis for this, because half of the refugees who came to Israel have already left. We insist that there will be complete reciprocity – if Ukrainians are required to have an electronic visa, Israelis will also be required to have such a visa. “
Kornichuk clarified that the intention is that Israelis will not be able to reach Uman on Rosh Hashanah without a visa in advance, unlike the current situation, in which they enjoyed an exemption from issuing visas.