The speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Alexander Turchinov, says that the Ukrainian army has almost completed an operation to close the Ukrainian-Russian border.
Earlier, the acting defense minister of Ukraine, Mikhail Koval, stated that the Ukrainian army and border guards would bring the border with Russia under control and restore the buffer strip. The Russian Ministry for Foreign Affairs said that it didn’t understand what Kiev meant by “closing the Ukrainian-Russian border” and expected explanations from the Ukrainian authorities.
Today more than 50 Russian citizens were forbidden to enter Ukraine. “We were told that the checkpoint of Shebekino is closed for Russian citizens. Colleagues noted that preliminarily the restriction will operate by June 26th. We don’t know the reason for this,” ITAR-TASS cites the head of Border Guard Detachment of the Russian FSB, Dmitry Zhukov.Alexei Poltorakov, a Ukrainian political scientist, told Vestnik Kavkaza that Kiev had to close at least one legal flow of citizens from Russia to Ukraine as a preventive measure. “One of reasons for failure of the antiterrorist operation which had to be finished before Poroshenko’s inauguration is that the Russian-Ukrainian border is too transparent and it is easy to come to Russia from Ukraine and from Ukraine to Russia, avoiding any checkpoints,” the expert says.Poltorakov added that in the context of the crisis the Kiev authorities have to pay close attention to security of state borders. “The first step which Poroshenko has to do as the Supreme Commander is to make the border “semi-transparent,” to close the inflow,” the political scientist concludes.
Today more than 50 Russian citizens were forbidden from entering Ukraine. “We were told that the Shebekino checkpoint is closed to Russian citizens. Colleagues noted that at first the restriction will operate until June 26th. We don’t know the reason for this,” ITAR-TASS cites the head of the Border Guard Detachment of the Russian FSB, Dmitry Zhukov.
Alexei Poltorakov, a Ukrainian political scientist, told Vestnik Kavkaza that Kiev had to close at least one legal flow of citizens from Russia to Ukraine as a preventive measure. “One of reasons for the failure of the anti-terrorist operation, which was due to be finished before Poroshenko’s inauguration, is that the Russian-Ukrainian border is too transparent and it is easy to go to Russia from Ukraine and from Ukraine to Russia, avoiding any checkpoints,” the expert says.
Poltorakov added that, in the context of the crisis, the Kiev authorities have to pay close attention to securing the state's borders. “The first step which Poroshenko has to do as the Supreme Commander is to make the border 'semi-transparent', to shut off the inflow,” the political scientist concludes.
