Aug 22 — On August 21-22, Ukraine returned 65 people held in the buffer zone of the Dariali checkpoint in Georgia on the border with Russia amid a humanitarian crisis. Among those returned were 10 women and eight seriously ill people, said Ihor Klymenko, the Minister of Internal Affairs, and Andrii Sybiha, the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Since the second half of June, Russia has significantly increased the pace of deportation of Ukrainian people through the Georgian border, causing a humanitarian crisis in the buffer zone of the checkpoint.

On August 5, the Ukrainian Embassy in Georgia received a message from five Ukrainians who were deported from Russia and are temporarily detained at the Dariali checkpoint. They were stating that they had begun a hunger strike because they couldn’t cross the Georgian border.

To Georgia’s border, Russia deported prisoners who were initially convicted in territories of Ukraine that were occupied and transported them to Russian prisons.

The majority of these people have no documents to cross the border, and their access to the country “poses a threat” because most of them were imprisoned for serious crimes, Georgian authorities said.

Ukrainians who were serving their sentences or considered missing were in the transit zone without documents, proper food, medical care, or other means of subsistence.

“We will find out all the details about the detention of our citizens in the buffer zone and Russia’s brutal attempt to use Ukrainian citizens for provocations and abuse,” said Klymenko.

The Russian Telegram channel Astra said that among the detainees were people with HIV, tuberculosis, and disabilities. They were not fed or provided with medical care. The condition of many was deteriorating, and one person has already been hospitalized.

“There is no shower or toilet, no food. Volunteers bring humanitarian aid, but it is enough for a few days and not (enough) for everyone. The basement is damp, there are water drops on the ceiling, there is nothing to breathe, everyone smokes, and they don’t let us go outside. We sleep for 4 hours in shifts. Some sleep on the floor,” said one of those held there.

Sybiha said that 44 more citizens were returned to Ukraine earlier. In total, 109 people detained in the buffer zone have returned home in recent months.

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