​Ukraine shuts down border posts with Russia

On Feb. 20, Ukraine’s government issued
a decree ordering the closure of one international, four interstate and 18
local border crossing points in Luhansk, Donetsk, Kharkiv, Sumy and Chernihiv
oblasts.

A total of 39 checkpoints will still
operate on the border with Russia, the State Border Service said. Three are
located in Chernihiv Oblast, 14 in Sumy Oblast, 15 in Kharkiv Oblast, six in
Luhansk Oblast and one in Kyiv Oblast.

Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers in
Ukraine had already suspended crossings at 14 border posts (6 in Donetsk Oblast
and 8 in Luhansk Oblast), due to a direct threat to the lives of those
attempting to cross.

At that stage the border posts closed were
Marynivka, Novoazovsk, Uspenka, Ilovaisk, Kvashyno, Donetsk, Dovzhansky,
Chervona Mohyla, Izvaryne, Krasna Talivka, Yuhanivka, Herasymivka, Petrivka and
Luhansk.

Viktoria Siumar, a former National
Security and Defense Council official and a member of Prime Minister’s Arseniy
Yatsenyk People’s Front, supported the decision.

“Ukraine is weak and can’t defend itself
as long as the country’s borders are not protected,” Siumar told the Kyiv Post.
“It’s a key priority task. When Ukraine doesn’t control its borders Russia can
influence the situation.”

Siumar earlier said that “the Wall”, an
ambitious construction project announced by the Ukrainian government in early
September, could be a great help in defending the country. The plan is to
tighten security along the whole perimeter of the Russian border, which
stretches along 2,295 kilometers.

The government plans to equip the border
with ditches, vehicle-barrier trenches and high-tech surveillance towers to
detect troop and vehicle movement from the Russian side.

In October, Yatsenyuk predicted that the
wall will cost €66 million to build. Some months later, on Feb. 11, during the
Cabinet meeting Yatsenyuk said that the government would try to halve the cost
of the construction work, while some work has already started in Kharkiv
Oblast.

Oleksandr Turchynov, who heads the
National Security and Defense Council, said that Russia is doing its best to
prevent Ukraine securing its border with the country.

“All Russian-terrorist groups
staying in the occupied territory understand that as soon as the border is
closed they will not stand even for several weeks, so Russia is blocking the
[border closure] decision-making in every possible way,” he said in Kyiv
on Feb. 21 at the exhibition of Russian weapons captured from separatist and
Russian forces during battles in the east of Ukraine.

Turchynov also believes closing the
border is the first task that should be solved, and needs to be directly
addressed by the participation of a peacekeeping mission.

However, some experts think the closure
of the border should have been done much earlier, and is in fact well overdue.

“It would have started in summer, but
now when Russian tanks and trucks loaded with ammunition cross the border
almost daily it won’t help much,” Viacheslav Tseluiko, a military expert at the
Center for Army, Conversion and Disarmament Studies, said. “If they couldn’t
enter the country via a checkpoint they would probably find another way.”

According to Tseluiko, this step could only
become effective if complemented by additional measures such as strengthening
the border with engineering constructions and armed patrols.

Pavlo Kyshkar, a Donbas Battalion member
and Samopomich Party lawmaker, was skeptical about the decision.

“This step may be a sign that Ukraine’s
officials are considering options of readiness for the introduction of martial
law,” Kyshkar says. “But the checkpoint closure in general won’t solve
our problems, it would be effective probably in Kharkiv Oblast only.”

Kyiv Post staff writer Olena Goncharova
can be reached at goncharova@kyivpost.com