Russian citizens will need passports to enter Ukraine as of March 1, a change that reflects severe tension between the neighbors amid an armed conflict in eastern Ukraine.
On February 3, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk signed a decree supporting a government resolution on the issue adopted on January 30.
Since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, Russian citizens have been able to enter Ukraine using domestic identification documents known as internal passports.
Yatsenyuk told the government that Ukraine must "adopt European rules for crossing the state border, including for citizens of the Russian Federation."
Russia seized control over Ukraine's Crimea region in March, and Kyiv says Moscow has sent thousands of troops across the border to fight alongside separatists in a conflict that has killed more than 5,350 people in eastern Ukraine since April.
