Belarus will not allow Ukrainians to enter the country using new biometric ID cards
Ukrainian citizens will not be able to enter Belarus with their new plastic ID-cards, as stated on the website of the State Border Committee of Belarus. These cards have been issued to Ukrainians since the 1st of January 2016, as reported by Evropeyskaya Pravda.
“According to the 2009 bilateral agreement on visa-free travel between the Republic of Belarus and Ukraine, the new Ukrainian ID-card passport cannot be used when crossing the state border,” the statement said.
The Belarusian Ministry has also reported that Ukraine has not yet initiated a ministerial procedure for the recognition of these cards as valid documents when crossing the border.
“Until a procedure is implemented, the Republic of Belarus will only allow Ukrainian citizens to cross the border if they are in possession of the required documents. These would be international passports for ID-card holders and old-style internal passports printed on paper,” the statement continued.
The Migration Service began issuing the new plastic ID-cards on the 1st of January. It is actually a passport in the form of a card that contains an electronic chip. Because of this, Ukrainians will soon have access to electronic services.
As of February 8th, Ukraine had issued 20,000 of these cards.