KIEV (Sputnik) — Poroshenko has signed into law the decision of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) on biometric border control for foreigners starting in 2018. The corresponding decree was published on the official website of the head of state earlier on Friday.
"Enact the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine from July 10, 2017 'On strengthening control over the entry into Ukraine, the departure from Ukraine of foreigners and stateless persons, their compliance with the rules of their stay on the territory of Ukraine'," the decree read.
The control over the implementation of the decision is assigned to the National Security and Defense Council. The decree comes into force from the date of its publication.
Moreover, the Ukrainian president instructed the cabinet to include Russia into the list of "migration risk" countries.
The relations between Russia and Ukraine have deteriorated dramatically since the 2014 coup in Kiev. At the time the Crimea peninsula broke off from Ukraine and rejoined Russia. Concerned by the new Ukrainian authorities' anti-Russian attitudes, Crimean officials organized a referendum on the predominantly ethnic-Russian peninsula's status. The event was followed by a popular uprising in Ukraine's east that led to a full-fledged war between Kiev and the self-proclaimed republics in Donbass.
