MCSC starts issuing letters to SBGS assisting culture workers traveling abroad

Photo by prikhodko.com.ua

Over the past week, since the coming into effect of the amended regulations, the State Border Guard Service (SBGS) has received several letters from the Ministry of Culture vouching for culture workers traveling abroad, said SBGS spokesperson Andriy Demchenko during a briefing, reports Suspilne.

Andriy Demchenko did not mention the names of the people the letters were about.

“Nothing has changed for the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine. We were already checking these documents. Everything is just more regulated now. Those representatives of the mass media and culture sectors who were temporarily exempted from the draft were able to travel abroad without letters from the Ministry of Culture even before the regulation changes for this group of citizens – instead they needed business trip papers,” said Demchenko.

According to the spokesperson, as of now the agency has no statistics on the number of times such people crossed the border or the number of times they were turned down this week. The figures will be prepared later.

Demchenko noted that a total of about a hundred citizens are refused permission to cross the border daily.

Previously

On March 4, 2025, the Cabinet of Ministers passed the Resolution No. 244, amending the Rules for Crossing the State Border by Citizens of Ukraine.

As per these amendments, men aged 18 to 60 who work in the media or are cultural figures need the following documents to cross Ukraine's state border:

• a letter from the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications or the Ministry of Digital Affairs addressed to the Administration of the State Border Guard Service outlining the details of the trip;
• an invitation from a foreign organization (with a translation into Ukrainian);
• a military record document with the appropriate stamps by a territorial enlistment center or a military record document in digital form.

On March 5, the Cabinet of Ministers made a decision on border crossing by artists and media workers who are eligible for the draft. From now on, documents must be submitted to the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications at least 15 days before departure, and the person should stay abroad no longer than 60 calendar days from the day of crossing the border.

The applicant now needs to have an invitation and a document proving they are on military record. Legal entities will have to have critical enterprise status and individual entrepreneurs will be able to apply for travel if three years have passed since their registration as a business and their application.

The Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications (MCSC) stopped issuing letters to the State Border Service (SBS) assisting artists and media workers eligible for the draft to travel abroad starting March 3.

According to the IMI, a few hundred artists and less than ten journalists left and did not come back over the past year.

The Director of the Institute of Mass Information, Oksana Romaniuk, believes that the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications (MCSC) suspending the issue of permits to travel abroad to media professionals risks to stigmatize the entire media community.

The Media Movement demands MCSC revoke the decision to suspend the issuance of letters for traveling abroad to journalists.

The Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications said they would resume issuing letters of assistance for traveling abroad to artists and media workers immediately after the approved amendments to the government resolution are adopted.