An expanded meeting of the Board of the Administration of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine took place in Odessa. It was sum up the results of operational activities for 2018 and set targets for 2019.

The event was being held with the participation of Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Vadym Troyan, Head of the State Border Service of Ukraine Petro Tsygykal and members of the Board of the Administration of the Agency, representatives of the Presidential Administration and chiefs of Regional Directorates, Border Detachments and educational institutions of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine.

Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Vadym Troyan noted that the State Border Service is developing systemically and clearly sees it in the ministry.

“The State Border Service should work to strengthen the personnel potential and improve the system of border guarding. These issues will be kept by the Minister on personal control,” he said.

In turn, the Head of the State Border Service, Petro Tsygykal, noted that “thanks to the support of the President of Ukraine and the Government, our agency systematically develops, performing multi-vector tasks in accordance with European standards - on the one hand, as a law-enforcement agency of a special purpose, on the other - as a combat unit in the general system of national security and defense.”

He added that the modernization of the border guard system is under way.

“We focused our efforts on increasing the density of protection, first of all with the Russian Federation, improving the legislation and structure of the Service, reforming the mobile forces and reserves, technical re-equipment and staffing,” the head of the Agency said.

Petro Tsygykal emphasized that in 2018 the Donetsk-Lugansk Regional Directorate and the Lysychanskiy Border Detachment, which carry out tasks in the Joint Forces Operation (JFO)  region, were deployed, the Regional Directorate of Marine Security in Odessa was established. In addition, he noted the strengthening of the Eastern section of new combat units, and the Government received permission to deploy Shostkinska Border Detachment. There was also an increase in the system of operational response “DOSOR”, including for action on the water.

We will add that, throughout the year, the border legislation was improved. The influence of violations in the migration sphere has increased, the powers on the use of weapons have been extended, and changes in the administrative law have increased the revenues to the budget by 46 million of hryvnias.