Ukrainians stuck on border with Georgia after evacuating from occupied territories: Ukraine's Foreign Ministry looks into situation
Six Ukrainian citizens, former prisoners who were forcibly deported to Russia, are stuck in the neutral territory between the borders of Russia and Georgia. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is assessing the situation.
Source: European Pravda
On 24 August, Georgian media outlets reported that six Ukrainian citizens had been stuck in the neutral territory between Russia and Georgia near the Verkhiy Lars checkpoint for a week.
Reportedly, five of them are convicts from Ukraine’s Kherson Oblast who were deported as the Russians were retreating and placed in Russian penitentiary facilities to serve the rest of their prison sentences. One is allegedly a Ukrainian who tried to evacuate from the occupied territory through Russia, got detained in a filtration camp, and headed back home after being let out.
Hoping to leave Russia through Georgia, the men arrived at the border on the night of 16 August. The Georgian border guards decided not to let them pass.
The Ukrainians are being supplied with food, water and medicine by volunteers.
The mother of one of the men told the media that Russian security forces had attempted to take her son from the buffer zone back to Russia, but were prevented from doing so by the rest of his companions and the Georgian border guards. Since then the Ukrainians have been trying to stay closer to the Georgian checkpoint.
Georgia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said they had immediately informed Kyiv about the situation in order to facilitate the return of these citizens to Ukraine, and have met with Oleksandr Shulha, the Ukrainian Chargé d’Affaires.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs told RBC-Ukraine that it is working to bring the six Ukrainian citizens back to Ukraine.
"Currently their identities and the legal aspects of serving their court-appointed sentences are being checked, and the issue of their return to Ukraine is being considered," the press service of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry stated.
Reportedly, Lithuania refused asylum to a Russian citizen who claimed that she was an opponent of Vladimir Putin’s regime and the war against Ukraine.
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