Draft bill #0231 of October 31, 2023
Sponsor: the President
Status: sent for review to the dedicated parliamentary committee
Who is affected: Ukrainian and Russian citizens and legal entities
Summary:
- Ukraine will terminate consular relations with Russia.
What is right:
- official termination of consular relations with the aggressor country.
What is wrong:
- no country is defined that will act as a mediator in consular matters between Ukraine and Russia
- no mechanism for protecting Ukrainian citizens in Russia is proposed
- Ukrainian citizens will be unable to get documents (for example, birth or death certificates)
- official Ukrainian representatives will be unable to take part in matters of establishing guardianship and custody
- no bodies will be authorized to protect the rights of prisoners of war.
Additional information:
- on February 24, 2022, Ukraine announced the termination of diplomatic relations with the Russian Federation without terminating consular relations, according to Article 2 of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of 1963
- on June 10, 2023, Ukraine ratified the Convention of member states of the Organization for Democracy and Economic Development (GUAM) on mutual assistance in consular affairs. Among other things, the provisions of the Convention define cases of mutual assistance to the parties of the Convention for the protection of the rights and interests of the citizens of the member states in third countries in the event of the absence of diplomatic missions and consular establishments of one of the parties in such countries.