Foundation.101 Presented Initiative in Kramatorsk

On November 23, “Foundation.101” held a press conference in Kramatorks to present its “Frontline Inspection” monitoring for local community and share some of the first results of the monitoring of the situation at the entry-exit control points “Zaytseve” and “Novotroyitske” in Donetsk region. The first results of the monitoring clearly demonstrated existing problems.

Andrii Bogdanovych, the leader of the initiative and Head of “Foundation.101” points out that long queue at control points remain the main problem of the access system. Some citizens wait for 7 hours in the queues in order to cross the entry-exit control points. There are cases than these people didn’t manage to cross the entry-exit control point before it was closed for night and they were forced to spend their night on the road.

Unfortunately, Logistics Centers – which are located in so called shady zone between the zero checkpoint on the contact line and entry-exit control points — didn’t fully solve the problem either. Firstly, the range of products at the Logistics center is rather insufficient. Secondly, according to eyewitnesses, there is single line for people at the “zero checkpoint” whether or not you plan to cross entry-exit control point. That is why most of the people choose to wait in another queue before the entry-exit control points and cross them to purchase food in their usual supermarkets in the cities controlled by Ukraine rather than to turn after the “zero checkpoint” and travel to Logistics Center.

“Most inspectors at the control points are polite with citizens, but we recorded several cases of mistreatment and humiliation of people by representatives of Fiscal Service. I would like to note that the State Fiscal Service has ignored all the comments and recommendations we forwarded them based on monitoring results. In contrast, State Border Guard Service actively cooperates with observers and take the appropriate steps to resolve the problems” — Bogdanovych added.

The representative of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, Lieutenant Colonel Oleksiy Solomin said that they plan to open additional entry-exit control point near Marinka on December 1, 2015 to decrease queues at other control points. New entry-exit control points will have the greatest capacity — up to 8,000 people and 2,500 vehicles per day — and thus significantly decrease the load on “Zaytseve” and “Novotroyitske” entry-exit control points.

Deputy Head of the Donetsk regional military-civilian administration Victor Andrusiv concluded that security measures at entry-exit control points that may cause inconvenience to citizens, primarily aimed at enhancing security for citizens who live in the free cities. Military and civil administration is making efforts to ease the situation related to the intersection of entry-exit control points. In particular, today the transfer between “zero checkpoint” to the free cities is organized on the basis of an interim agreement. But Administration plans to hold an open competition to select transferring organization shortly.

At the end of the briefing participants raised corruption issue. To date, Foundation’s observers didn’t record facts of extortion at entry-exit control points. However, during survey at the control points, people complain that one can pass the main queue and go directly to the shorter privileged one (for people with babies, elderly or people with disabilities) by paying 200 UAH. Therefore, “Foundation.101” will focus on recording such facts among its priorities. Also, the organization opened an opportunity to submit online claim for violations or other problems at entry-exit control points. Form for complaints is available at Foundation’s website.