President Volodymyr Zelenskyy chaired a meeting of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, which considered the situation on the state border with Belarus and heard reports on the introduction of restrictive measures against a number of individuals and legal entities.
Consideration of the situation on the state border of Ukraine was preceded by a meeting at the Ministry of Defense, during which representatives of the intelligence agencies reported on the aggravation of the situation on the Belarusian-Polish border. After that, the Head of State convened today's meeting of the National Security and Defense Council, at which a number of decisions were made.
As Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Denys Monastyrskyi said at the briefing, Ukraine is preparing for the scenarios that can now be observed on the Belarusian-Polish border.
"We are deciding to enhance the presence of the State Border Service on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border. Today, the most probable areas for mass accumulation of migrants near the state border were identified. And the protection of the state border will be reinforced by the National Guard and the National Police of Ukraine," the minister said.
In particular, according to him, the number of State Border Service representatives will be doubled in these areas, the reserves of the National Guard and the police will be involved and mobile groups will function.
In addition, according to the Interior Minister, in the near future in the border regions of Ukraine exercises will be conducted involving territorial defense units to increase preparedness for possible scenarios in the event of entry of illegal migrants into our country from the territory of Belarus.
The National Security and Defense Council has also decided to impose sanctions on companies on which three planes were registered that have previously been subject to restrictive measures.
As Head of the Security Service of Ukraine Ivan Bakanov explained during the briefing, at the time of the adoption by the National Security and Defense Council of decisions on the application of sanctions, four aircraft were outside our country and only one was in Ukraine. This is the aircraft used by Viktor Medvedchuk and it did not leave the territory of our state.
"All those planes that move somewhere without permission will be prosecuted, and all their registrations will be tracked. They will definitely be subject to sanctions," Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov said at a briefing following today's meeting.
In addition, the National Security and Defense Council has imposed restrictive measures against persons who have opened a representative office of Nicaragua in the Russia-occupied Crimea. Thus, sanctions were imposed on four Russian citizens and four Nicaraguan citizens.
The National Security and Defense Council also heard a report by the Head of the Security Service of Ukraine on the situation related to the application of restrictive measures against smugglers.
Ivan Bakanov said that since the beginning of the year, according to the Security Service of Ukraine, the National Security and Defense Council has imposed sanctions against 22 individuals and 146 legal entities. He stressed that combating smuggling is a complex work of many authorities.
Also the National Security and Defense Council heard a report by the Minister of Internal Affairs on the effect of sanctions applied against criminal leaders and so-called thieves in law.
At the briefing, Denys Monastyrskyi said that, according to the decision of the National Security and Defense Council, sanctions were applied to more than 500 "thieves in law". Of these, 83 persons have had their residence permits revoked in Ukraine, 37 have been prosecuted, and the documentation of criminal activity or the procedure of deportation from Ukraine is taking place as regards 23 of them.
At the same time, according to the Minister, the grounds for including criminal leaders in the sanctions lists of the National Security and Defense Council are being checked and inaccuracies are being corrected, in particular in passport data, information on citizenship, place of residence, etc.
At a meeting on Wednesday, the National Security and Defense Council also considered energy issues and ensuring the application of the Law "On Prevention of Threats to National Security Related to Excessive Influence of Persons with Significant Economic or Political Weight in Public Life (Oligarchs)", which recently entered into force.