The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved a resolution on digital passports in the Diia (Action) mobile application, according to the country’s Ministry of Digital Transformation.
The resolution titled “On the implementation of an experimental project on the use of the passport of a citizen of Ukraine in electronic form and the passport of a citizen of Ukraine for traveling in electronic form” was approved on April 15.
The e-passports in the Diia application are digital analogs of paper documents, according to the Resolution.
The electronic versions will soon be available in the mobile application. These are valid only in Ukraine, however citizens who do not have a driver’s license or ID card can confirm their identity with an international biometric passport loaded into the Diia app.
More than 17,000 citizens are already testing the e-passports, which can be used as both an electronic ID card and a biometric passport. The government said these documents can be used to confirm identity for banking transactions, to travel by plane or train, receive postal services, to get medical and hotel services.
Using a digital passport, one can also use the library, get telecommunications services, get admission to administrative buildings and receive governmental services on the Diia portal or to obtain money when returning goods, the Ministry said.
“Ukraine is the first country in the world where it is possible to use a digital passport and at the same time not to show a paper or plastic analogue,” said the Ministry in its blog in social networks. “Now more than 2,100,000 Ukrainians are already users of the Diia application.”
