All foreigners legally entering Ukraine will be registered only at the state border checkpoints by servicemen of the state committee for protection of the state border. The foreigners who legally temporarily stay in Ukraine will no more be required to additionally register with the police.

This is provided by [Ukrainian] President Leonid Kuchma's decree "On additional measures to implement the human right to freedom of movement and free choice of abode".

This decree was issued to support the constitutional right to freedom of movement and free choice of abode and to fulfil Ukraine's international obligations.

According to the decree, the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers has to submit to the Supreme Council a draft Ukrainian state migration programme for 2002-2005. Cabinet of Ministers has to submit proposals on gradual abolishment of the compulsory order of choosing abode (the registration) to comply with the Ukrainian constitution's provisions guaranteeing human rights and freedoms of citizens.

Overview: After Russia, the Ukrainian republic was far and away the most important economic component of the former Soviet Union producing more than three times the output of the next-ranking republic. Its fertile black soil generated more than one-fourth of Soviet agricultural output, and its farms provided substantial quantities of meat, milk, grain and vegetables to other republics. Likewise, its diversified heavy industry supplied equipment and raw materials to industrial and mining sites in other regions of the former USSR.