Although unexpectedly, Russia’s aggression against Ukraine led to an increased number of entries of citizens of the Russian Federation into Bosnia and Herzegovina, while significantly fewer entries of Ukrainians were recorded.
As the Border Police of BiH told Klix.ba, only from the beginning of this year until July 3, a total of 80,760 citizens of the Russian Federation were recorded at the entrance to BiH, while 73,559 citizens of the Russian Federation were recorded at the exit from BiH.
“In the same time period, 20,107 citizens of Ukraine were recorded at the entrance to BiH and 18,503 citizens of Ukraine at the exit from BiH,” the Border Police said.
When it comes to the number of entries of citizens of these two countries since the beginning of the Russian aggression against Ukraine, i.e. from February 24, 2022 to July 3, 2023, 152,475 citizens of the Russian Federation were recorded at the entrance to BiH, while at the exit a total of 140,450 citizens of the Russian Federation.
In the same time period, 69,876 Ukrainian citizens were registered at the entrance to BiH and 64,070 at the exit from BiH.
In April last year, at the proposal of the Ministry of Security, the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina passed a decision facilitating the entry and stay of citizens of Ukraine in Bosnia and Herzegovina on the basis of humanitarian reasons.
On the other hand, BiH still applies the visa-free regime with Russia, with which it signed the Agreement in 2013 and has not yet harmonized its visa regime with the EU visa regime.
Citizens of the Russian Federation are exempted from the obligation to obtain visas for entry, exit, transit and stay on the territory of BiH, and may stay under the right of visa-free stay for up to 30 days within two months, from the date of first entry.
The issue of tightening the visa regime of BiH with the Russian Federation was additionally imposed at the end of 2022, after the arrival of a group of Chechens, Russian citizens, in BiH who were returned to Turkey from where they arrived at the airport in Sarajevo.
