Ukrainian servicemen. Photo: Antikor.info
A Ukrainian man who was trapped in legal limbo for months on the Russian-Georgian border has told Novaya Gazeta Europe that once he was finally able to return to Ukraine, he was forced to enlist in the military.
The man, who spoke to Novaya Europe on condition of anonymity, said that he was currently doing his basic training at a military base in western Ukraine, and that he expects to serve as a mine expert. Despite serious problems with his vision, the man said he had passed his medical examination and was approved to serve in the army. His appeal against the decision was turned down.
“My eyesight is very bad. I can hardly see. I can’t see anything through my right eye at all,” he previously told Novaya Europe, before adding that if he had to go and fight, he would, “but at least let me get my affairs in order first.”
Independent Telegram news channel SOTA reported that of 67 Ukrainians who were returned home in August after months stuck at the Russian-Georgian border due to them not having their passports with them, only 11 people, all either disabled or fathers to many children, have been allowed to return home. The rest were mobilised and taken to the city of Vinnytsia, in western Ukraine, without even being allowed to see their loved ones first, one of the men told SOTA.
The Ukrainians in question were mostly former prisoners who had been deported from Russia after serving their sentences and were left at the Georgian border, where they were not permitted to enter the country due to their lack of official IDs.
About 100 Ukrainians in all ended up stuck at the Verkhny Lars border crossing in recent months, where they were made to live in a basement in no man’s land. They repeatedly staged protests, went on hunger strike, and in some cases, threatened to commit suicide.
Last month, the Ukrainian authorities reported that they had brought 65 of their citizens back to Ukraine. That number included 10 women and eight people who were seriously ill. Some 25 Ukrainians remain in a basement on the Georgian border, according to Telegram news channel Tbilisi Life.