Ukrainian citizens go on hunger strike at Georgian border checkpoint

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Five Ukrainian citizens have been at the Georgian checkpoint "Dariali" for a long time. According to them, 97 people live in the basement, they are not allowed into the country. The hunger strikers demanded that the Ukrainian consul be allowed to see them, that they be given the opportunity to leave Georgia or apply for international protection.

As "Kavkazsky Uzel" wrote, at the end of June, volunteers reported that there are 57 people awaiting identity checks on the Russian-Georgian border, including Ukrainian citizens.

Five Ukrainian citizens who are in the basement of the Georgian border checkpoint "Dariali" have declared an indefinite hunger strike, "Georgia-online" wrote on August 5, citing one of the hunger strikers, Sergei Larko, who has been living on the border of Russia and Georgia for about a month.

According to Larko, the hunger strikers intend to hand over an official statement to the Georgian border guards about the start of the hunger strike. They declared it "in protest against the illegal actions of Georgian border guards" and the violation of rights.

Larko said that on June 21 he was deported from Russia, and in Georgia his passport was confiscated and his biometric data was taken. He is currently "in inhumane conditions in the basement of the "Dariali" checkpoint together with 97 people, including those sick with HIV and tuberculosis." He added that he was denied entry to Georgia, as well as an application for asylum, legal assistance, and the opportunity to appeal his detention.

The hunger strikers demand that they be allowed to see the Ukrainian consul, that the reasons for their detention be explained, that they be given the opportunity to leave Georgia and apply for international protection, that they undergo a medical examination, and that their illegal detention be stopped.

In December 2023, a group of Ukrainian citizens, mostly former prisoners, waited a long time for permission to enter Georgia from Russia. Some of them spent about a month at the checkpoint. According to them, only volunteers provided assistance to them.

In October 2023, seven Ukrainian citizens were forced to spend more than two weeks in the buffer zone on the Russian-Georgian border. Previously, they served their sentences in the colonies of Kherson; after their release, they were brought to the deportation center in Volgograd and issued orders banning entry into Russia. While the Georgian authorities refused to let them into the country, the volunteers supplied the Ukrainians with food and essential items.

At the end of November of the same year, it became known that the Georgian authorities again refused to let former Ukrainian prisoners into the country. Volunteers managed to get eight Ukrainians through, but another eight people, who had spent more than two weeks at the checkpoint by that time, were left waiting at the border.