A Cautionary Tale from Ukraine

Hi Everyone,

I'd just thought it might be a good idea to mention something that happened on my recent travels to Ukraine that have got me a bit perturbed.

The first event happened 8 days into my holiday whilst in the Ukrainian Capital, Kyiv (sometimes spelt in its russified form, Kiev). A huge music festival was taking place and Independence Square was extremely busy with people from all nations who had come to see the concerts being held for free.

On the advice of staff in the hotel and because of the large crowds we could see, my partner and I left our passports and immigration cards in the hotel. These were left in a drawer, out of sight.

After venturing out for a fabulous meal, we returned to our hotel. Outside our hotel stood a police officer who asked to see our passports. We explained that on the advice of the hotel staff we had left them in our hotel room. The police officer then started saying that he was going to arrest us for not having our passports on us. After 10 minutes of saying "Look, they're in our room in that hotel," he agreed to let one of us go in and get our passports.

Once in the hotel, I had to go to the reception to get the key. The receptionist was not someone I'd seen before. However, she had our key in her hand ready to give me. In fact I didn't even have to ask for the key - she just gave it to me.

I went to the room to pick up the passports. These had been taken out of the drawer and placed neatly on the edge of the desk ready to be picked up. I quickly grabbed the passports and hurried back outside where the police officer was interrogating my partner. I showed him our passports. However, the immigration cards had been removed from them.

At this point the police officer said we had two options: either go with him to the police station and be locked up for 3 days or pay him to go away.

At this point it all became too clear that this was a set up by staff in the hotel and the police to try and get extra money out of people visiting the country.

We paid him 50 hryvnia (equivalent to £5 sterling) which isn't a lot in the grand scheme of things, but the whole experience made us feel really negatively about a country and a city we were beginning to love and that is truly sad.

I think what is also sad is that it's stories like this that stop people from visiting a country which has otherwise been one of the nicest and most welcoming I've been to.

Next year negotiations start with Ukraine regarding EU membership. The truth is however, I think it will be a long time before Ukraine is ready for EU membership. In order to be ready, corruption in the organisations that are supposed to protect Ukrainians and visitors to the Ukraine from the crime in their society needs to be tackled. However, I'm not sure the government of the country is strong enough nor has the political will to achieve this.

Incidentally, in case you are wondering, the immigration cards had been put neatly back in the drawer by whoever moved the passports.