The Head of the State Border Service of Ukraine had a talk with the journalists of the TV channel “Real Time” (“Nastoiashcheie Vremia”) about the "wall", citizens’ admission and cooperation with Russian border guards.

Regarding the engineering and technical maintenance of the border:

None of the walls will protect us from Russian tanks, from Russian MLRS Grad. None of the walls will give one hundred percent guarantee that no one will be able to surmount the wall. Of course, if it is charged with 10 thousand electric volts ... but when such a "wall" is installed, Ukraine will be excluded from all international organizations.

What was called the "wall" is actually a set of measures for the engineering and technical arrangement of the state border. First of all, at the border with the aggressor country, we install: firstly, an anti-transport moat, secondly, a control trace lane, thirdly, we install a barrier fence and a video surveillance and alarm system.

Regarding the entry of the Russian Federation citizens:

For the Russian Federation citizens, which are not desirable on the territory of our country there are some difficulties for border crossing. If a person has violated the legislation of Ukraine, if he/she has violated the legal procedure for visiting the occupied and annexed territories, of course we do not allow such people to enter the territory of Ukraine, and this applies not only to citizens of the Russian Federation, it can be representatives of the European community. We return them with a ban on entry – this is our legal right. 

If we take the figures of non-admission of citizens of the Russian Federation, this year they are even higher than in previous years. It is perceived calmly – it is our legal right and  there are even no cases of appeal.

My position is following: the state border should be friendly for the friends of Ukraine and impassible for enemies.

Regarding cross-border cooperation with neighbouring countries:

There is appropriate cross-border cooperation. There is an apparatus of border guard commissioners. This is the mechanism by which we solve all incidents: all cases of detention of illegal migrants or smuggling both by us or by them. This is the border – here at any time, regardless of the time of year, various problematic issues may arise and the legislation gives us the opportunity to solve them.

This does not currently work with Russia. The official channel of correspondence we use is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I have recently observed, I can not say a warming, but there is simply an understanding that, despite the difficult relations between the two countries, we have a common section of the border. And we, as border guards, are still forced to receive certain information from them.