image captionMen of conscription age will be significantly restricted in their right to receive consular services abroad
April 23, 2024
Consular offices stop issuing documents to Ukrainian men of conscription age abroad.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine issued a statement that in the conditions of full-scale Russian aggression, the main priority is to protect the Motherland from destruction.
It was noted there that soon the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will clarify the procedure for obtaining consular services for men of mobilization age abroad. There is information from the consulates of Ukraine that the provision of these services has already been stopped.
“How it looks now: a man of draft age went abroad, showed his country that the question of its survival does not bypass him, and then comes and wants to receive services from this country. This is not how it works. There is a war in our country,” – howled Dmytro Kuleba, head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
According to him, the obligation to update one’s documents in the TCC existed even before the adoption of the new law on mobilization.
“If these people believe that someone over there, far at the front, is fighting and giving his life for this country, and someone will sit abroad, but at the same time will receive services from this country, then it doesn’t work like that,” the minister said. .
He noted that staying abroad does not release a citizen from his duties to the Motherland.
“That is why yesterday I instructed to take measures to restore fair treatment of men of mobilization age in Ukraine and abroad. It will be fair,” said Kuleba.
Foreign divisions of SE “Dokument” already work was suspended. This was reported on the department’s website. But they said that it happened for technical reasons.
The publication “Suspilne” reported that Ukrainian consulates in Poland also stopped providing services to men aged 18-60.
The mass media also wrote that Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiga sent a letter to Ukrainian diplomatic institutions with a request to stop the provision of services.
At the request of the BBC, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not confirm or deny the authenticity of the information about Sybiga’s letter.
Earlier, the authorities admitted that since February 24, about 650,000 men of draft age have gone abroad. According to official EU data, there are more than 800,000 men aged 18-64. How many of them are aged 18-60 is unknown.
What documents may cease to be issued
Photo credit: DUMITRU DORU/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock
Signature to the photo, It will not be possible to get a new passport or update documents
What services do consular offices provide abroad?
First of all, this is the solution of many issues with documents – obtaining a ready-made passport, delivery of passports, extension of the validity period of a foreign passport, entering information about a minor child into a foreign passport, issuing a birth certificate.
It is also a whole list of notarial services: power of attorney certificates, permission to cross the border for minors, application for acceptance/rejection of inheritance, certification of wills; certification of the authenticity of copies of documents; certificates confirming personal data; identity card for return to Ukraine.
Ukraine is under martial law. Clauses 6 and 16 of Article 8 of the Law of Ukraine on Martial Law provide that the Cabinet of Ministers can establish the regime of entry and exit of citizens, restrict freedom of movement.
Under the new law on mobilization, which has not yet come into effect, men of conscription age abroad must also update their data at the TCC.
The new norms of the law provide that it will be possible to do this in absentia without returning to Ukraine by phone or e-mail. But now it is not entirely clear whether it will work.
In Warsaw, a crowd of angry people gathered near Dokument. The agency has suspended its work and people whose passports are already ready cannot pick them up. Neither men nor women. Visitors quarrel with department employees. The crowd can be heard shouting that the mobilization law has no retroactive effect.
“Will not force anyone to go to war”
If the authorities decide not to issue passports to men aged 18 to 60 in Ukrainian consulates abroad, it will be a morally understandable decision, but in fact a bad and ineffective one, said Serhiy Petukhov, former deputy minister of justice for European integration.
In his opinion, this will not force any man to return to Ukraine and go to fight. Further, the expert suggests, when a Ukrainian man’s Ukrainian passport expires, he will either use a temporary certificate issued in this country, or apply for refugee status.
“He will have a great chance to get asylum in European countries,” says the former deputy minister of justice.
Ukraine will now be compared with Belarus, Petukhov believes, which has also stopped issuing passports to its citizens who have gone abroad.
After Oleksandr Lukashenko banned Belarusian citizens from issuing documents abroad, some Belarusians who emigrated found themselves on the verge of losing their legal status.
“As a result, we have a solution that does not achieve its goal, instead it creates significant reputational problems for the country,” says the exhibitor.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy recently signed the law on strengthening mobilization, which was adopted by the Verkhovna Rada. The Ukrainian authorities call it extremely important for repelling Russian aggression. The opposition criticizes.
The Russian Foreign Ministry, commenting on Kuleba’s statement, said that Kyiv is luring Ukrainians abroad.
In December 2023, due to discussions surrounding the new draft law on mobilization and restrictions due to this law, Ukrainian men went abroad en masse to draw up new documents.
Huge queues at consular offices and at the DP Document then formed in several European countries.
