Ukraine asks OSCE to facilitate re-launch of Zolote checkpoint – Gerashchenko

Representatives of separate areas of Luhansk region use a far-fetched pretext not to let the Zolote checkpoint in Luhansk region re-open, First Deputy Speaker, Ukraine's envoy to the humanitarian subgroup at Trilateral Contact Group talks in Minsk Iryna Gerashchenko has said.

"I have put point-blank the question of the opening of the checkpoint in Zolote whose work has been blocked since March 31 this year. Those in the separate areas use far-fetched reasons not to allow the re-launch of this checkpoint until now, rescheduling its opening for an indefinite date again and again. I have turned to the OSCE for facilitation of the re-opening of the checkpoint as soon as possible to share the workload of other checkpoints," she said on her Facebook page on Tuesday after a meeting of the humanitarian subgroup.

Gerashchenko said that the solution of problems related to the checkpoints would ease the life of people who have to cross the demarcation line in Donbas.

Special Representative of Ukraine in the humanitarian subgroup Viktor Medvedchuk and SBU officers who are engaged in the exchange of hostages will join the group on Wednesday, November 9, she said.

"On November 9, we will hear a report by OSCE coordinator Toni Frisch on his visit to the occupied territories and prisons where the hostages are kept. We will make every effort to release our guys," Gerashchenko said.

In addition, she said, the Russian side has been disregarding the Ukrainian side's requests at all levels for two years, giving no official information about how many Ukrainian citizens from Donbas live in the Russian Federation and their official status there.