KIEV, December 5. /TASS/. The Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers plans to bar Ukrainian citizens from crossing the Russian border on their domestic passport starting from March 1, 2020, Director of the Consular Service Department of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Sergei Pogoreltsev said in a comment to the Ukrainian news agency UNIAN.

"The government is going to terminate the possibility of crossing the border with the Russian Federation for Ukrainian citizens on their domestic Ukrainian passports and birth certificates," he said.

Pogoreltsev said that the draft resolution by the Cabinet of Ministers stipulated the suspension of the provisions of the agreements with Russia as of 1997 and 2011, which allowed border crossings without presenting a foreign travel passport. This initiative is attributed to the fact that the simplified order for crossing the border with Russia by Ukrainian citizens allegedly "poses a threat to Ukraine’s state security."

He added that Ukrainians staying in Russia could apply for a foreign passport in the embassy and consular missions of Ukraine. "Currently more than 4,000 Ukrainian citizens already used this right and received [their] biometric foreign travel passports at our facilities on Russian soil," he added.

Starting from March 1, 2015, Kiev banned Russian citizens from entering Ukrainian territory on their domestic Russian passports "for security concerns." Since then, Russians can entry Ukraine only upon presenting a foreign travel passport. Still, Russia did not respond to this move in kind, and Ukrainian citizens may enter Russian territory on their domestic passports.