A Ukrainian woman spoke about the extreme difficulties of crossing the border with Russia: “Everyone is checked”

“Even deleted messages and photos”

Citizens of Ukraine can enter Russia only through the Ludonka checkpoint in the Pskov region and Sheremetyevo airport. A Ukrainian woman named Katrin, who came to Russia, posted on social networks about her experience crossing the border.

Photo: AGN «Moscow»

— When I arrived at Sheremetyevo airport, fifty mattresses with blankets were waiting for me, lying on the floor. At first this surprised me, and only then I found out that some people wait two to three days until the inspection is over.

First, passport control was waiting for me. After it, people are sent to a common room, where they need to fill out forms and answer many questions: “from where”, “why”, “for what purpose do you want to get to Russia” — and the like.

Then I passed fingerprinting procedure, my phone was taken away for verification and I had to wait in the common room for almost three hours.

After checking messengers and social networks, I was called for an additional survey. On it they can ask almost anything: clarify information about parents or ask questions about suspicious messages in correspondence with friends. Even photos deleted from the phone's memory are checked!

Personally, 20 people in my presence were not allowed through. One woman was denied entry because she liked posts on pro-Ukrainian public pages. Another woman was not allowed through, but her husband was allowed to cross the border.

How to cancel the entry ban? When you are deported to the country from which you came, all that remains is to go to the consulate: find out at the embassy on what grounds you were not allowed in and get your way through the court.

In general, the search turned out to be incredibly thorough and strict, but this is right! The Khokhlyat evil spirits should not meddle in Russia if they ever supported the Nazi policies of our wretched government, and the Russians are always happy to see peace-loving Ukrainians.

The staff here are responsive, there are many young people with an excellent sense of humor. They let me and my daughter through, we are now in Russia, so I’m happy!