Ukraine has temporarily closed the border checkpoint Zaytsevo
on the contact line in the Donetsk Region, press secretary of the State Border
Guard Service of Ukraine Oleg Slobodyan told TASS on Wednesday. “The border
checkpoint Zaytsevo is temporarily closed. Stanitsa Luganskaya checkpoint is
working in the routine mode but everything will depend on the intensity of
shellings there,” Slobodyan said. If security of peaceful residents is
threatened there, the checkpoint in Stanitsa Luganskaya will be temporarily
closed as well but for now “the situation remains calm in general,” he added.
It is not clear for how long the Zaytsevo checkpoint
will be closed. Among other border checkpoints operating in the routine mode
are Gnutovo, Novotroitskoye and Maryinka. “The number of people and vehicles at
these checkpoints has not increased over the last 24 hours,” the press
secretary noted. Head of Donetsk military-civil administration (part of Donetsk
Region controlled by Kiev) Pavel Zhebrovsky said the Zaytsevo checkpoint will
be closed starting from February 3. The idea was supported by head of Luhansk
military-civil administration Georgy Tuka who added that the border checkpoint
Stanitsa Luganskaya may be closed as well. The Ukrainian side explained the
decision by the deterioration of security situation in the region. However,
spokesman for the defense ministry of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR)
Eduard Basurin said that Kiev decided to unilaterally close checkpoints at the
contact line because main goods are cheaper in DPR. “As a result of the
upcoming provocation, Ukrainian authorities intend to stop allowing Ukrainian
citizens on DPR territory due to considerable differences in prices for main
goods in Ukraine’s border region and DPR,” Basurin said. He added that bread,
milk, vegetables, cereal and other goods are considerably cheaper in DPR than
in Ukraine.
Source: Novorossia Today 03-02-2016
