With your blankets

Ukrainian prisoners on the Georgian border for 20 days have been waiting for decisions on passing and threaten to open their veins

The Georgian border guards on the eve of eight of 16 Ukrainian former prisoners released from Russian prisons, found out the country, found out the New Gazeta Europe. Eight more people still remain in the buffer zone between the Russian Verkhny Lars checkpoint and the Georgian gearbox “Daryal”, in the mountain gorge, where snow has already fallen.

Former prisoners are waiting for resolving bureaucratic issues - they need special documents to enter Georgia to go to their homeland, to Ukraine.

Why the delay with the documents takes place, it is not known exactly, they say in the project Volunteers Tbilisi, which provides assistance to the stuck prisoners. Most likely, the information is delayed when processing in Ukraine, where you have to look for certificates in order to establish the identity of those whom the Russian administration illegally took out of prisons in Kherson during the retreat of its army. In Russian prisons, Ukrainian prisoners usually select documents.

“Yes, you have to process documents for a long time, this is understandable: in Ukraine, war, official structures are not up to it. There are no complaints about the Georgian border guards, because from the documents of the Ukrainian citizens who arrived from the Russian Federation there is usually a certificate of release from the Russian prison and a certificate “On the establishment of personality” - a practically useless piece of paper, ”said the head of Volunteers Tbilisi Maria Belkin in an interview with Novaya Gazeta Europe.

She explained that after receiving a request to confirm the personality from the Georgian border, the Ukrainian embassy sends him to Ukraine.

“We, for our part, are fighting for these people to be sent to Georgia at least under escort, and not hold on the border in the basement. We know that several men who are stuck on the border are now fever, chronic diseases have become aggravated, many of them came out of prisons with patients with kidneys. This is an elementary violation of human rights. They did not lose their own free will, ”Belkina explained that the longest, 20 days, on the border is a native of the Odessa region Alexander Burkovsky. He was also taken out of prison in Kherson.

Belkina says that former prisoners are never allowed to Georgia as “ordinary tourists” - there is always a verification procedure. However, how long the process of establishing personality can continue is unknown:

“Recently, two women - former prisoners were delivered to the Upper Lars. One spent three days there, the second - a week, she even needed medical care. "

Georgian border guards distinguish former Ukrainian prisoners awaiting the results of the audit, one of their service premises is an unheated basement. In August, six former prisoners from Ukraine awaited 11 days on the border, in October, 17 prisoners lived in such a room for two weeks. In November, 16 men aged 25 to 55 years were stuck on the border.

The new photos from the office premises shows that the next batch of former convicts is heated by a home -made electric stove. But they have mattresses and warm blankets.

“This group of former prisoners arrived in Georgia from Russia with its blankets and pillows. To take more warm clothes and blankets with them, they were advised by former prisoners who had already survived the expectation at the border. They were warned that they could get stuck for a long time, ”says Ekaterina Golubeva, representative of Volunteers Tbilisi.

By the way, one of the former prisoners, who was helped by the volunteers, decided to stay in Tbilisi and began to actively help the organization.

Since the creation, since March 2022, Russians, Ukrainians, and Georgians have been working in Volunteers Tbilisi. Often, foreign students who study in the Georgian capital take part in the events.

The Tbilisi Volunteers also have partnership organizations in Ukraine - along with Zakhist V'yazniv Ukrainian (“Protection of Prisoners of Ukraine”) they buy tickets to former Ukrainian prisoners so that they can get home, provide them with urgent medical care. And the Embassy of Ukraine is trying to draw up documents as soon as possible.

“They have nowhere else to go, they may have more than others, they need to return home,” says Maria Belkin.

According to her, for those 20 days that the group of prisoners is on the border, volunteers have already brought food and medicines for them three times. Georgian border guards also treat them well - they are divided by cigarettes, water, and are interested in their condition.

Now the organization maintains constant connection with those men who still remain on the border. In such a situation, moral support is also very important, says Ekaterina Golubeva: “My contact in the group is Arman, an ethnic Armenian from Odessa, he has been on the border for 16 days.

Today, Arman called me and said that they are all ready to open their veins in order to draw attention to their problem.

I no longer know how to dissuade them, I'm very afraid that all this can end with a tragedy. ”