The Consulate General of Ukraine in Lyon will resume consular services for citizens starting July 9, following the completion of administrative procedures and technical preparations, the consulate announced on its official website.
Appointments will be scheduled via an online queue, and a separate appointment system is in place for vulnerable groups. The Consulate General urged Ukrainians to familiarize themselves in advance with the procedures for obtaining consular services and the document requirements.The consular district of the Consulate General of Ukraine in Lyon covers three regions of France: Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, and Corsica. Citizens residing in these regions will be able to register for temporary and permanent consular registration, register the acquisition of Ukrainian citizenship by birth, and register adopted children.
At the same time, other consular services will be provided without restrictions based on place of residence in France. The Consulate General also clarified that foreign passports previously issued by the Embassy of Ukraine in France can only be obtained at the Embassy of Ukraine in France.
The Consulate General also plans to provide mobile consular services in remote cities with the highest concentration of Ukrainians. The first such visits are scheduled for September in Nice and October in Marseille. The possibility of providing mobile services in other cities may also be considered depending on the community’s needs.
The opening of the Consulate General in Lyon is expected to reduce the workload on the Embassy of Ukraine in France and simplify access to consular services for Ukrainians living in the southeastern part of the country, particularly in the regions of Lyon, Grenoble, Marseille, Nice, and Corsica.
According to Eurostat, as of April 30, 2026, there were 4.37 million non-EU citizens in the EU under temporary protection who had fled Ukraine due to the war; more than 98.5% of them were Ukrainian citizens. At the same time, regarding France, Eurostat specifically notes that its data typically does not include minors, so official statistics on temporary protection do not fully reflect the total size of the Ukrainian community in the country.
According to media estimates, there may be approximately 80,000–100,000 Ukrainians in France who left after the start of the full-scale war, although some of them have already transitioned from temporary protection to other legal statuses or have left the country.
CONSULAR SERVICES, consulate general, FRANCE, Lyon, UKRAINIAN
Consular services for Ukrainians abroad and a number of other new services will appear in “Diya”, said Deputy Prime Minister for Innovation, Development of Education, Science and Technology – Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine Mikhail Fedorov.
“The application and portal “Diya” turns five years old. During this time, more than 40 services and 130 services have appeared there. Here are the plans of “Dia” for the future….. “eConsul”. In “Diya” Ukrainians abroad will be able to order a passport or ID-card, driver’s license, taxpayer card and pick up at the place of stay,” – wrote Fedorov in his Telegram channel on Wednesday.
In addition, he said, the digitalization of death-related services will take place with the help of Diya. At the first stage in the application it will be possible to obtain a death certificate, state registration of death, as well as transfer data to registries, to issue assistance for burial.
Fedorov announced a service to change the surname in “Diya” with a comprehensive reissuance of documents. There will be introduced “eNotary” – an electronic system that will integrate all notarial processes.
New services for drivers will be created. “Dia” will expand the possibilities of re-registration of vehicles (TS), will add the possibility to change the technical passport, to register TS after customs clearance, the note says.
Deputy Prime Minister announced the appearance in “Diya” AI-assistant, to which Ukrainians will turn if there are problems in interaction with the state. For partners who want to integrate services of “Dia”, AI-chatbot “Natalka” is already working, reminded Fedorov.
Ukraine is in the process of finding a state that could provide consular services to Ukrainian citizens forcibly deported to the Russian Federation, said the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Lyudmila Denisova.
“We need a foreign state that will provide consular services to our citizens. We are working on this,” the ombudsman told Interfax-Ukraine at the Russia War Crimes House exhibition in Davos during the World Economic Forum.
According to her, in particular, Ukraine has appealed to Switzerland on this issue, but due to a number of circumstances it cannot fulfill this function.
Denisova also said that Russia’s stated data on the export of 1.347 million citizens of Ukraine, including more than 240 thousand. children, grow every day and were not fake.
The ombudsman stressed that she had reliable information that Russia was preparing for such an operation in advance.
“I have already received confirmations and evidence – materials from the Russian Federation – and there is clearly defined with signs the readiness of temporary accommodation of Ukrainians on February 21. That is, they sent directives from top to bottom… That is, they prepared in advance, I think they began to prepare in 2021, “said Denisova.
She clarified that these directives went from the Ministry of Emergencies, then to the federal districts, from there to the regions, and then to the cities.
“Then I have information that they collected at 4 am on April 29 how much was filled and how much was still free: 1200 or so was on April 29 and 33% was free. I think they will get up to 2 million,” said the ombudsman. .
According to her, it is a question of sending even to the territories furthest from Ukraine, for example, to the Yamal-Nenets district.
Denisova said that the Ukrainian side is cooperating with Russian citizens – volunteer organizations that raise funds to help deported Ukrainian citizens, because many of them do not have documents, things, “and no one talks about money at all.”
According to her, there used to be contacts with the Russian ombudswoman, but she believes that “you are all lying”, so now these contacts do not work.
The Commissioner of the Rada noted that attempts are being made at various levels, including the private one, to deport Ukrainian citizens from the Russian Federation.
“We are provided with lists of citizens who want to leave. We check Ukrainian citizenship and send it to the consulate in Narva. Volunteers buy tickets, they (Ukrainian citizens) come to Narva and cross it (border), and meet them in Estonia,” she said. the state of affairs of Denisov.
At the same time, she stressed that it is impossible to evacuate a significant number of people in this way, so it is literally hundreds.
In this regard, the Ombudsman recalled the clear resolution of the UN Human Rights Council of May 12, which calls for the forced deportation of Ukrainian citizens to Russia and the requirement to allow international human rights organizations, as well as provide an opportunity to return to Ukraine. Denisova added that a similar resolution was recently adopted by the European Parliament.
