State officials do not take into account that Article 33 of the Constitution of Ukraine establishes that everyone who is legally present on the territory of Ukraine is guaranteed freedom of movement, free choice of place of residence, and the right to freely leave the territory of Ukraine, with the exception of restrictions established by law.

At the moment, a by-law is applied - The rules for crossing the state border of Ukraine by citizens of Ukraine are established by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine in accordance with the Law of Ukraine No. 3857-XII and other laws of Ukraine, which are not law and contradict the Law of Ukraine, the Constitution of Ukraine and the rules of an international treaty.

Restriction of freedom of movement

The powers of the military command to restrict the freedom of movement of citizens must be established in accordance with the procedure determined by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. It is referred to in paragraph 6 of part 1 of article 8 of the Law “On the Legal Regime of Martial Law”. This is the “Procedure for establishing a special regime of entry and exit, restricting the freedom of movement of citizens, foreigners and stateless persons, as well as the movement of vehicles in Ukraine or in certain areas where martial law has been introduced,” approved by Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 1455 of December 29. 2021.

Clause 1 of the above procedure determines that this Procedure defines the procedure for establishing measures of a special regime for entry and exit, restricting the freedom of movement of citizens, foreigners and stateless persons, as well as the movement of vehicles in Ukraine or its individual areas where martial law has been introduced (i.e. only within the country) carried out by the military command.

Moreover, even in the Procedure itself, for those who do not understand the first time, a special clause was indicated under number 8, which clearly and unambiguously states how crossing the state border at checkpoints across the state border is regulated and how such restrictions are established.

According to paragraph 8 of the Procedure for crossing the state border at checkpoints across the state border and control points in the territory where martial law has been introduced, it is carried out taking into account the restrictions established by law.

That is, issues of crossing the state border are not regulated by the Procedure for establishing a special regime of entry and exit, restricting the freedom of movement of citizens, foreigners and stateless persons, as well as the movement of vehicles in Ukraine or in certain areas where martial law has been introduced,” approved by a resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine No. 1455 of December 29, 2021, and are regulated by other legislation, including international treaties, the Constitution of Ukraine and the Law of Ukraine “On the procedure for leaving Ukraine and entering Ukraine for citizens of Ukraine.”

This paragraph refers to the legislation and excludes the possibility of using the powers of the military command at its discretion to cross the state border.

Therefore, any restrictions that are arbitrarily established by officials of the state border services and state leadership are unacceptable.

Law on restricting the right of citizens to leave

Article 313 of the Civil Code of Ukraine provides that an individual has the right to freedom of movement. An individual who has reached the age of sixteen has the right to freely travel independently outside of Ukraine. An individual may be limited in the exercise of the right to movement only in cases established by law.

The preamble of the Law of Ukraine No. 3857-XII of January 21, 1994 “On the procedure for leaving Ukraine and entering Ukraine for citizens of Ukraine” establishes: “This Law regulates the procedure for exercising the right of Ukrainian citizens to leave Ukraine and enter Ukraine, the procedure for processing documents for foreign trips , determines cases of temporary restriction of the right of citizens to leave Ukraine and establishes a procedure for resolving disputes in this area.”

Article 1 of the Law establishes that a citizen of Ukraine has the right to leave Ukraine, except for the cases provided for by this Law, and enter Ukraine.

That is, the above norm establishes that only by this Law, and not by any other legal act (presidential decree, government resolutions, other laws, instructions and letters from the head of the border service, security service, etc.) can cases be established when a citizen of Ukraine does not have the right to leave Ukraine.

Such restrictions are specified in Article 6 of the Law of Ukraine on the procedure for leaving Ukraine and entering Ukraine for citizens of Ukraine, which establishes exceptional grounds for temporarily limiting the right of Ukrainian citizens to leave Ukraine.

Thus, the right of a Ukrainian citizen to leave Ukraine can be temporarily limited only in 6 cases:

1. He is aware of information constituting a state secret - before the expiration of the period established by Article 12 of this Law;

2. A preventive measure was applied to him in the manner prescribed by criminal procedural legislation, under the terms of which he is prohibited from traveling abroad - until the end of criminal proceedings or the lifting of the relevant restrictions;

3. He is convicted of committing a criminal offense - to serve the sentence or be released from punishment;

4. He evades the fulfillment of obligations imposed on him by a court decision or a decision of other bodies (officials), subject to forced execution in the manner prescribed by law - to fulfill obligations or pay arrears of alimony;

5. He is under the administrative supervision of the National Police - until the supervision is terminated;

6. He is the head of a legal entity or permanent representative office of a non-resident (according to information from the Unified State Register provided in accordance with the Law of Ukraine “On State Registration of Legal Entities, Individual Entrepreneurs and Public Formations”), who does not fulfill the tax obligation established by the Tax Code of Ukraine for the payment of monetary obligations, which led to the occurrence of a tax debt in such a legal entity or permanent establishment of a non-resident in an amount exceeding 1 million hryvnia, and if such a tax debt is not paid within 240 calendar days from the date of delivery of the taxpayer’s demand - for repayment of the amount of such tax debt in connection with which such a limitation is established.

Thus, an analysis of these legislative provisions indicates the existence of a significant range of grounds for restricting freedom of movement and fairly broad discretionary powers of public authorities and their officials on these issues.

Moreover, the data has already been edited previously, that is, changes have been made to it. Despite the prohibition of such manipulations with the establishment of additional restrictions on human rights, this law was adopted before the adoption of the Constitution, and accordingly, the rights of citizens to restrictions on leaving the country cannot be narrowed as long as there is a Constitution of Ukraine and there is a country of Ukraine.
Documents for crossing

Article 3 of the Law of Ukraine “On the procedure for leaving Ukraine and entering Ukraine for citizens of Ukraine” establishes that citizens of Ukraine cross the state border of Ukraine at checkpoints across the state border of Ukraine after presenting one of the documents specified in Article 2 of this Law.

According to Article 2 of the above Law, the legislator established an exhaustive list of documents giving a citizen of Ukraine the right to leave Ukraine and enter Ukraine, and this is only a passport of a citizen of Ukraine for traveling abroad.

The said Rules No. 57 do not indicate that men during martial law must have additional supporting documents, they are only given this opportunity, and it also does not indicate that during martial law in Ukraine, male citizens of Ukraine aged 18 to Travel outside Ukraine is prohibited for 60 years during martial law in Ukraine.

Paragraph 2 of the Rules establishes that the crossing of the state border by citizens of Ukraine is carried out