Exactly a year ago, on June 11, Ukrainians had a really good reason to celebrate: the long-awaited visa-free travel to the countries of the European Union was approved. Today we speak about it with less fervor, it seems, as if there were no visa regime. What Ukrainians write about it – read in the reactions from DUMKA.
According to the President of Ukraine, 555 thousand of Ukrainians who visited the countries of the European Union with biometric passports were able to assess the visa-free regime. Petro Poroshenko also added that the first anniversary of the non-visa regime is the answer to all treasonphiles who assured us that we would never get it. Not bad trolling, Mr. President. And you know, my dearest, I will not add any treacherous screenshot. Let the victory at least once be a victory completely.
The political expert Oleksii Minakov, for his part, tried to smash the feeling of the victory a bit, saying that it is unlikely that all 555,000 would be so grateful that they will vote for the incumbent president at the next election. However, Minakov immediately added: even if this victory is used for the election campaign, this will be quite fair. And I think that it is unlikely that all 555 thousand will vote, because somebody should walk with an ATB bag in Warsaw at that time.
Oleksandr Dediukhin, the abbot of the St. Nicholas Church in Poltava, said that the only cons of visa-free regime were queues on the border with Poland. And just think, even without Russian tourists. Really, what should they actually do there? While we will be walking in Prague or will be having breakfast in Vienna, our “good” neighbors will stand somewhere in the queue on the Kerch Bridge. Well, nothing to worry, it’s not forever as well.
The journalist Oleksandr Rudomanov also told about his impressions of the first year of the visa-free regime. His memory is a round trip to Sweden for only $ 1,200, no checks of things and booking, and five open countries. And if it’s not a sweet win, then I’m not Stepan Koza.
The political scientist Viktor Taran also joined the secret flashmob. He had time to visit Italy, Spain, Portugal and Germany. Among the advantages he highlighted the quick passage of borders and absence of discomfort. And the only minus is that there are more opportunities for traveling than time. All right, we can agree for such betrayal.
The writer and translator, Artem Chapai, bragged about the fact that despite the non-visa regime during the last year he managed to visit India, as well as Turkey and Africa. Well, well, Mr. Chapai, someone has to speak Ukrainian there too.
The most concise characterization of the visa-free regime was the post of the journalist Ruslan Horovoi: for a year, going to common people we do not need to receive a piece of paper “that you are not an ape”. We can only laugh in the sleeve at those who can be taken into account in the category of “apes”. But yes, we will laugh kindly as it can’t be otherwise somewhere in Barcelona.
But the People’s Deputy and ex-spokesman of the “Right sector” Boryslav Bereza reminded us that we were moving on to this regime for 10 years, because everything started in 2008, when the ex-President Viktor Yushchenko agreed with the EU leadership on a dialogue about a visa-free regime. Oh, how young we were, I did not even think about journalism at that time. Could you imagine what talented person could have been lost?
The journalist, blogger, and writer Zoia Kazanzhy shared, at first glance, the “dry” statistics of this visa-free year, which, frankly speaking, warms our hearts. So, what can I say? O lovely maidens, travel, but not… with old passports.
The reactions were collected and the victory was cherished as a child by Stepan the Goat
