DISINFO: Due to Ukrainian provocation, a man died at a checkpoint with the DNR
SUMMARY
Due to Ukrainian provocation, a man died at a checkpoint with the DNR. Ukraine opened checkpoints without coordination with the DNR. DNR has long offered Ukraine to organise humanitarian corridors for citizens, but Ukraine refused.
RESPONSE
Pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the war in Ukraine. The information that Ukraine did not inform the representatives of the so-called "Donetsk National Republic" (DNR) about the opening of two checkpoints does not correspond to reality. The Ukrainian leadership in advance and directly informed the pro-Russian militants of their intention to open two entry and exit points for social and humanitarian purposes from 10 June 2020. The refusal of the militants to let citizens through the checkpoints led to the fact that many Ukrainians living in the occupied territories were forced to spend the night right at the border. On Friday 12 June, the UN Monitoring Mission in Ukraine reported that a 59-year-old man died trying to get to his family on the territory of the Donetsk region not controlled by the government near the exit-entry checkpoint in Maryinka. Since 10 June, a man had been waiting for the opportunity to cross the border with the “DNR”. On the evening of 11 June, he became ill and was taken to hospital by ambulance. He refused hospitalisation and returned to the border - a couple of hours later he died of a heart attack. This is not the only such case. On the same day, 11 June, in the so-called “grey zone”, a woman became ill while she waited, unsuccessfully, to be allowed across the border by representatives of the “DNR” group. The victim could not move, but the militants took no action to provide the woman with first aid - she was evacuated from the grey zone by Ukrainian border guards and representatives of the Red Cross. It is also reported that for more than three days, representatives of the “DNR” have been holding two people in their car in front of their checkpoint, stubbornly preventing them from driving home.