U.S. businessman and Kyiv Post publisher Jed Sunden was refused entry into Ukraine on April 11 after he arrived at Boryspil airport following a business trip to the United States.
Sunden said authorities took his passport and told him that he had been declared ‘persona non grata.’ They gave no explanation for the action, he said. After spending nearly 20 hours stranded at the airport, Sunden flew to Vienna on the afternoon of April 12.
But hours after he departed, a highly placed government official who refused to be named told the Kyiv Post that Sunden was free to return to Ukraine. The source would not say why the decision was reversed. He asked a reporter to pass on the information to Sunden.
Hours later, speaking by telephone from Vienna, Sunden said he had been told by U.S. Embassy officials that the ban had been lifted. He said he would attempt to return to Ukraine on April 13.
The incident, which drew a barrage of media attention, began the afternoon of April 11 after Sunden entered Boryspil and was notified that he was not welcome in the country. He was not detained or questioned, but informed that he must leave.
Sunden, speaking by phone from Boryspil earlier on April 12, said he had heard unofficially that authorities placed him on a list of individuals barred from the country on March 31, two days after he left Ukraine for a visit to New York City. Sunden said he did not know the reasons for his expulsion.
A spokesman for Ukraine’s border guard service refused to comment April 12. The foreign Ministry said in a short statement that it had ‘no connection to the decision to bar this person from entering Ukraine.’
Officials at Ukraine’s State Security Service were also unavailable for comment failing to return repeated phone calls.
The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv said in an April 12 statement that it had been in touch with senior Ukrainian government officials on the issue.
‘We’ve asked for immediate clarification on the reasons for Mr. Sunden’s exclusion from the country,’ said Mark Taplin, U.S. Embassy counselor for public affairs.
It was unclear whether Sunden’s expulsion was related his position at the Kyiv Post, which has occasionally been critical of the Ukrainian government. The newspaper itself received no threats, and publication has never been interrupted by government authorities.
The incident occurred at an odd time – two days before U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was scheduled to arrive in Ukraine to urge the country to accelerate reforms.
Sunden founded the Kyiv Post in 1995. The company has grown to include the Kyiv Business Directory and Edinstvenaya, a Russian-language women’s magazine.
