Photo from UNIAN
Ukrainian and Israeli diplomats agreed to deepen cooperation between competent authorities to ensure the interests of citizens during their visits.
On February 21, Deputy Foreign Minister Serhiy Kyslytsya received the Ambassador of the State of Israel to Ukraine, Joel Lion, as part of the regular dialogue between the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry and the Israeli diplomatic mission, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine reports.
Kyslytsya noted that the Foreign Ministry was intensifying its work to protect the interests of Ukrainians traveling abroad and to monitor the situation to protect their rights.
The parties agreed to work on deepening interaction between the relevant authorities in order to ensure the interests of citizens during their visits to Israel and Ukraine.
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The interlocutors stressed the crucial importance of further developing partnership between Ukraine and Israel, in particular with a view to fulfilling the agreements reached during the visit of President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko to Israel in January.
As UNIAN reported earlier, on February 15, some 140 Ukrainians were held for several hours at Israel's Ben Gurion airport. Ukrainians were not allowed entry upon their arrival without explanation and banned from moving around the airport without escort.
According to Ukraine MP Heorhiy Lohvynsky, Ukrainians were detained in response to the Ukrainian border guards' move to deny entry to 35 Israelis who had arrived to the Boryspil airport in Ukraine.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry said that 35 Israelis had been detained at the airport near Kyiv, 28 of whom had purchased tickets for various flights.
According to Lohvynsky, Ukrainian border guards had legal grounds to deny crossing to the said foreign nationals over to the lack of sufficient funds to support their travel expenses or failure to confirm the purpose of their visit.
However, as a protest response, according to Israeli Interior Ministry officials, all 140 Ukrainian passengers who arrived from Ukraine in Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport were also denied entry.