On 21–22 August, 65 citizens of Ukraine were returned from the buffer zone on the Russian–Georgian border.
This was announced by Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha.
“On the instructions of the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the return of 65 Ukrainian citizens from the buffer zone on the Russian–Georgian border to Ukraine was organised. Among them are 10 women and eight seriously ill people,” he wrote on Facebook, adding that all of them were at the Georgian checkpoint Dariali in conditions of a humanitarian crisis created by Russia’s actions.
Ukrainian diplomats and consuls made every effort to return the citizens and improve their conditions at the border, in particular with the involvement of international organisations.
The people were returned on 21–22 August via Moldova.
“We express our special gratitude to the official representatives of the Georgian and Moldovan authorities for their assistance in organising the transit route and resolving logistical issues,” the minister said.
He recalled that in previous months, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, together with the relevant authorities, had already organised the return of a total of 44 citizens. Thus, the overall number of Ukrainians who have been returned from the Dariali checkpoint in recent months has reached 109.
Work is currently underway to repatriate the remaining citizens who wish to return to Ukraine.
“The humanitarian crisis on the Russian–Georgian border arose in the second half of June, when Russia began deliberately increasing the number of Ukrainian citizens it deported to this checkpoint,” Sybiha wrote. According to him, the Ukrainian side has already publicly appealed to the Russian Federation to send them directly to the Ukrainian border, not the Georgian border.
“This proposal remains in force. If Russia continues to ignore it, the only conclusion will be that the sharp increase in the number of deportees is a planned Russian operation against Ukraine. At the same time, Ukraine never abandons its people in trouble and will always give priority to protecting the rights and legitimate interests of its citizens,” the head of Ukrainian diplomacy added.
What is happening
- On 3 August, the Centre for Countering Disinformation refuted Moscow’s claim that Ukraine had refused to accept 90 of its citizens from the Georgian border. Kyiv stated that the Ukrainian side is systematically working to return citizens, provided they have confirmed citizenship.
- According to Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha, Russia has significantly increased the number of deportees – mostly former prisoners – to the border with Georgia, and they are stuck there because they do not have the proper documents.
- In early August, five Ukrainians who were “stuck” at the Georgian border crossing point Dariali announced an indefinite hunger strike. A total of 96 people were there.
- Among the deportees were various categories of Ukrainian citizens. Some had gone to Russia to work before the full-scale invasion but ended up in prison there and served their sentences; others had no criminal record but were deported from the temporarily occupied territories for refusing to obtain Russian citizenship. Women, elderly people, young men, disabled individuals, and sick people – without medicine or means of subsistence – are being held for months in a basement completely unsuitable for the long-term stay of such a large number of people.
- One of the deportees told LB.ua more about this. Read about it in the article “We sleep in shifts: there are almost 100 Ukrainians here for 18 beds”, by Serhiy Zakharchenko, deported from the Russian Federation.