Ukrainians stuck in buffer zone on Russia-Georgia border declare hunger strike

Fifteen Ukrainian former prisoners stuck in transit in the buffer zone at the Russian-Georgian Verkhny Lars border crossing informed the head of Georgian customs on Wednesday morning that they were going on hunger strike, men in the group have told Novaya Gazeta Europe directly.

In a video message, the Ukrainians also demanded a visit from the Ukrainian consul, an explanation for why they were being held on the border, access to food and medical care, and their release from the basement they are being held in.

The men Novaya Europe spoke to stressed that they were not staging the protest “to annoy the Georgian authorities” but to prompt the Ukrainian authorities into action. The men also sent their statement to the Ukrainian Embassy in Georgia, the Georgian ombudsman, the Georgian Prosecutor General’s Office, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the UNHCR in Georgia.

Last week, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) launched proceedings against Georgia and Ukraine, demanding detailed information by Wednesday on the status of the approximately 100 Ukrainian citizens who currently find themselves in limbo on the border as they do not have passports.

About 100 Ukrainian citizens have been stranded in a basement on the Russian-Georgian border for more than two months. Most are former convicts deported from Russia having completed their jail terms, while others are Ukrainian civilians from occupied territories Russia has expelled for opposing the war.

A group of the detained men protested the conditions of their detention on 21 July, with one man slitting his throat, though he survived. The Ukrainians also complained that Georgian border guards had used physical force against them and withheld food while they were temporarily evacuated from the basement following a landslide in the area in late July.