Screenshot: Novaya Gazeta Europe
A group of Ukrainian citizens being held in a basement in the buffer zone at the Verkhni Lars crossing on the Russian-Georgian border staged a protest on Sunday evening, they informed Novaya Gazeta Europe.
The group, made up partly of former prisoners, said between 60 and 70 of them had come out to protest at the conditions they are being forced to live in while stuck in bureaucratic limbo.
In video footage Novaya Europe has seen, the Ukrainians demanded access to the Duty Free zone, where they could “at least buy bottled water”. They said they were receiving insufficient aid from the Red Cross and were only allowed out onto the street for a few minutes a day, two or three people at a time.
The men, who are all awaiting travel documents before they can be transferred to Ukraine, also demanded that the healthy be separated from those with tuberculosis, and said that they were “tired of being treated like animals”.
One of the protesters cut his throat, a source told Novaya Europe. He explained that he was desperate, having twice bought tickets to Ukraine, but on both occasions was refused entry to Georgia by border guards to allow him to travel onwards. It took two hours for an ambulance to arrive. Others in the group said he had been “stitched up like a dog”.
The Ukrainians said that armed special forces arrived at the checkpoint at about 4am local time. The protesters were forced to return to the basement, while one was taken away by security forces and returned five hours later, his wrists having clearly been handcuffed. He said he had been beaten.
The other residents of the basement have said that conditions have deteriorated even further since the protest, saying whereas they used to be taken out for a walk in groups of three, they were now only allowed outside one at a time.
The latest humanitarian crisis at the border crossing has been ongoing since June. However, volunteers say that the basement at the border has housed Ukrainians who have been refused entry into Georgia for lack of documents since at least 2023.
The basement currently holds about 90 Ukrainians, including former prisoners who had completed their sentences in Russia and people deported from occupied parts of Ukraine for refusing to accept Russian citizenship or cooperate with the occupying authorities.
The cramped space has no fresh air and there is little in the way of normal food or medical care. Volunteers report a lack of medicines, hygiene products and a risk of TB.
“People now sleep in shifts lasting four hours on average. There is not enough space and there are 20 beds at most. People are going crazy,” one activist said.
Georgia does not allow former prisoners into the country, regarding them as a “threat to national security”. The country also refuses to allow Ukrainians to pass through its territory without a valid international passport.