Border guards did not allow an Italian man to enter Ukraine because he criticized Zelensky in a conversation with a fellow traveler

An Italian citizen named Rocco was denied entry to Ukraine after, while traveling to the country on a bus, he praised Russian President Vladimir Putin and criticized Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky.

This was written on Threads by his fellow passenger, Daria Melnychenko, who was on the same bus.

“Imagine the situation: I’m traveling to Ukraine from Italy on a double-decker bus. We stop for ten minutes. A couple gets off — a Ukrainian woman and an Italian man. He’s wearing a vyshyvanka, which, as he said, his beloved gave him, and they’re going together to her home. I’m in headphones, speaking Italian for work. He comes up to me and starts talking. He asks where I’m going, and a bunch of other questions. Of course I keep my distance and answer neutrally. And then he starts telling me what a shty country ours is, what a shty president we have, and that he respects Putin and what a great guy he is.

I say: Then you shouldn’t go to Ukraine.

And he starts yelling: My woman’s home is there!

I reply: Do you understand you’re speaking to a Ukrainian woman right now? You’re going to my country and saying such horrible things.

To which he says: My woman has the same opinion, and she’s just as Ukrainian as you are.

I say: No, we’re different kinds of Ukrainian women,” Melnychenko wrote.

While the bus was heading toward the Ukrainian border, Melnychenko’s post went viral; apparently border guards read it as well. When the bus arrived at the checkpoint, officers from the Chop Border Guard Detachment invited the Italian citizen for a conversation. As the author reported, he was ultimately not allowed into Ukraine.

Under the law, a foreigner may be denied entry to Ukraine if they are considered a threat to security or public order.