About 150 Ukrainian citizens have applied to the Ukrainian embassy in Kazakhstan for assistance in repatriation, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Oleh Nikolenko said.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine cooperates with the Kazakh authorities and the governments of foreign states to protect the interests of Ukrainians in Kazakhstan. About 150 citizens have applied to the Ukrainian embassy for assistance in returning to their homeland. At the same time, due to the gradual stabilization of the security situation, some compatriots report changes in their plans and decide to stay on the territory of Kazakhstan,” Nikolenko told Interfax-Ukraine on Tuesday. According to him, international flights with Nur-Sultan have been fully restored, with the exception of some flights of European airlines. “Regular flights to Kyiv are planned for January 13 and 16, which our citizens can use,” the speaker said.
He pointed out that transport links are also being restored, including rail, between major Kazakhstani cities.
“The Ukrainian embassy has agreed with the Kazakh railway on the possibility of purchasing group tickets for Ukrainian citizens who wish to arrive in Nur-Sultan for a further flight to Kyiv. The diplomats also agreed with Air Astana on the possibility of free rebooking of tickets for canceled flights from Almaty to new flights from Nur-Sultan,” Nikolenko said.
He said that the Foreign Ministry recommends that Ukrainians who wish to use this option to check in advance the availability of seats and the dates of flights from Nur-Sultan.
“According to the Kazakh side, the Astana international airport is also ready to resume full-fledged work. The exact time of opening the airport will be announced additionally,” he said.
Nikolenko said that there are no Ukrainians among the victims or detainees during the recent events in Kazakhstan. The Embassy of Ukraine maintains regular contact with citizens, will continue to provide them with consular assistance and inform them about possible ways to leave the country.
From Sunday, January 2, 2022, the updated border crossing conditions will come into force in Montenegro, the Ukrainian Embassy press service said.
“Now entry is allowed with one of two documents, namely confirmation of full vaccination, provided that the second dose of the vaccine was made no later than six months before entry; confirmation of the transferred COVID-19 disease (positive PCR or rapid antigen test, which must be at least ten days and no more than 180 days),” the embassy said on Facebook.
In both cases, it is also necessary to have either a negative PCR test not older than 72 hours, or a rapid antigen test not older than 48 hours.
These conditions are valid until January 12.
Previously, only a negative test was required to enter Montenegro.
A plane from Afghanistan, sent to evacuate Ukrainian citizens and their families, has landed at the Boryspil international airport, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine reports.
“Ukraine does not leave its citizens alone, no matter where they are,” said Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Hanna Malyar when meeting the plane at the airport.
There are 96 people on board, including citizens of Ukraine, as well as persons with a permanent residence permit in Ukraine, members of their families, persons whose return was requested by the Vatican and Canada.
Malyar noted that Ukraine will continue to provide assistance to its citizens and citizens of other countries in the future.
The Swiss authorities have lifted restriction on entry of Ukrainian citizens into the country.
“The restriction on entry into Switzerland has been lifted for citizens of Ukraine since August 2,” the online resource of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine reports.
It is noted that in order to enter Switzerland, Ukrainians must present a certificate of a full vaccination course (if 14 days have passed since the last dose), a negative PCR test result (must be done a maximum of 72 hours before entry), a negative rapid antigen test result (must be done a maximum of 48 hours before entry) or confirmation that you have had coronavirus in the last six months and have recovered.
At the same time, only a certificate of vaccination with drugs recognized in Switzerland is taken into account, in particular, Pfizer/BioNTech (BNT162b2/Comirnaty/Tozinameran), Moderna (mRNA-1273/Spikevax/COVID-19 vaccine Moderna), AstraZeneca (AZD1222 Vaxzevria/C, Janssen/Johnson & Johnson (Ad26.COV2.S), Sinopharm/BIBP (SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine (Vero Cell)), Sinovac (CoronaVac).
“For persons who arrived in Switzerland from regions with dangerous variants of the virus and who have been in these regions for more than ten days, and who are not vaccinated or cannot prove that they have had COVID-19 in the last six months, a ten-day quarantine is provided,” the Foreign Ministry said.
The European Council confirms that the ambassadors of the EU member states have decided to recommend including Ukraine in the list of countries for which restrictive measures imposed on travel to the EU due to coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic can be lifted.
The press service of the European institution said it confirms that the relevant decision was made today by the ambassadors. Further, by the end of the week, it will be formalized in a written procedure.
The list of countries for which it is recommended to be allowed to travel to the EU is reviewed every two weeks and updated as the case may be. Previously, Armenia, Moldova and Azerbaijan were included in it.
More than 70% of respondents surveyed by sociologists have said they support the idea of dissolving the Verkhovna Rada and holding early parliamentary elections, according to a poll conducted by the Rating sociological group on May 16-21, 2019 and published on Wednesday. At the same time, the highest level of support for the dissolution of parliament and the holding of early elections is in the South and the East of Ukraine which is more than 80%. In other regions, the dissolution of the Verkhovna Rada is supported by at least 60% of the respondents.
“There is a certain difference in the attitude to the holding of early elections among the supporters of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc’s Solidarity Party, most of whom are against this initiative,” the release of the Rating says.
The audience of the survey is the population of Ukraine who is older than 18 years. The sample is representative by age, gender, region, and type of settlement. The sample of population is 2,000 respondents, who were interviewed by means of face-to-face talk. An error of representativeness of the study is no more than 2.2%.
