Foreign Militants Returning From Iraq, Syria Use Route Via Ukraine to Reach Europe – Moscow

NEW YORK – Foreign militants returning to Europe from conflict zones in Syria and Iraq are actively using the route via Ukraine, Ilya Rogachev, the director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s new challenges and threats department, told Sputnik.

“Many returnees from Syria and Iraq seek to enter Ukraine through Turkey since Ukraine has a visa-free regime with the European Union. So, Western partners created another big problem for themselves. It is relatively easy to obtain a Ukrainian passport, so terrorists seek to go there,” Rogachev said, according to the Russian agency.

 According to Rogachev, the European Union introduced a visa-free regime with Ukraine to “encourage Kiev for its Russophobia” and revitalize the country’s European aspirations. As a result, the politicization of the situation with Ukraine has led to a security problem for the European Union itself, the diplomat concluded.

Rogachev noted that the main problem was that hundreds and thousands of militants from conflict zones have dispersed across the world. The majority avoid returning to countries of their origin, where law enforcement agencies may have records of their movements and take action.

The issue of dealing with such returnees has turned into a problem of third countries, the diplomat concluded while stressing that international cooperation could play a key role in tackling this aspect of counterterrorism.

H.M