On November 15, the press briefing “Arrangement of checkpoints with Crimea – will the state fulfil its obligations?” was conducted.

Civil society organizations prepared the appeal to the Government regarding arrangement of the entry/exit checkpoints with the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine.  

It is highly unlikely that arrangement of the entry/exit checkpoints “Kalanchak” and “Chongar” at the administrative border with Crimea will be completed in 2018. This was stated by the public activists at the press-briefing in Ukraine Crisis Media Center. According to Tamila Tasheva, the Chairman of the Board of the CSO “Crimea SOS”, three information requests were sent to the service provider – Ukrainian state enterprise “Ukrinteravtoservice” on behalf of her organization regarding the status of the works– in response they were informed that design and estimate documentation was not developed, correspondingly, the funds for the construction were not disbursed to the accounts of the enterprise yet.

The funds allocated for the arrangement of “Kolonchak” and “Chongar” according to the resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers (about UAH 106 million) shall be used by the end of this year.

“Only two months left before the end of the year and, surely, it is doubtful that the documents will be prepared and the construction, as a whole, will be completed by the end of 2018. Whereas the representatives of the Ministry of Infrastructure informed us that by the end of November – beginning of December this year it was planned to complete the construction works at the entry/exit checkpoints, and by December 25, 2018 the Ministry of Infrastructure should submit the report on the use of the funds”, – mentioned Tamila Tasheva.

Vitaliy Kindrativ, Director General of the Directorate for strategic planning and coordination of the state policy in the transport sector of the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine mentioned that design and estimate documentation for the entry/exit checkpoints (EECP) with the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea and the areas under maintenance would be prepared in the nearest future and after that the relevant state body would be able to receive funds and carry out mentioned works. “I can assure you that all woks will be competed and all funds disbursed and used in line with the budget legislation”, – stressed Vitaliy Kindrativ.

According to the activists, at the moment, EECPs “Kalanchak”, “Chongar” and entry checkpoint “Chaplynka” are in a poor state. The recent monitoring demonstrated that the roads close to all three points were in poor condition, near EECP “Chongar” there were traces of patching repairs, told Oleksandr Sedov, analyst of the CSO “Crimean Human Rights Protection Group”. Also, at this EECP, the building envisaged for the primary healthcare services provision was used for retail sales, and the toilets were privately owned. Oleksandr Sedov also told that at the EECP “Kalanchak” the building of the bus station with the platform appeared, but it was also in private property. Besides there appeared temporary premises where the representatives of the National Police were located. According to him they forcibly collect personal information from the people crossing EECP, though provision of such information to the police shall be voluntary.

Victor Vuika, the lawyer of the Crimean reception office of Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union in Kherson, stressed the urgent need for opening of centers for administrative services provision in the settlements near EECPs. He called for amending of the administrative procedures regarding these processes, for example, registration of births and deaths of the citizens from the occupied territory, as it would allow “to lessen the burden on the court system” and significantly reduce the time for solving such issues for the citizens of the temporarily occupied Crimea. He stressed that both CASPs and state notary officers should be located as close as possible to the EECPs. “A person shall be met not only by the enforcement bodies; he/she shall be met by the center for administrative services provision. It shall be a kind of psychological moment when a person understands that the state cares for him/her”, – stressed Victor Vuika.

Borys Babin, the representative of the President of Ukraine in Autonomous Republic of Crimea in Kherson, when commenting the results of the monitoring, mentioned that temporary premises, where the representatives of the National Police were located, also existed at the “Chongar” and “Chaplinka” points. Also he told about the measures undertaken to solve the problems mentioned in the “Ukrainian Government Recommendations” regarding arrangement of EECPs at the administrative border with Crimea. In particular, it includes opening of the centers of administrative services provision in the settlements close to the check points. “On Friday, tomorrow, CASP will be opened in Novotroitsk, the works are underway in Novoalekseevka, CASP will be also opened there, and, I think, it will be opened after the new year”. Besides, he added, the work was underway on ensuring legal transportation of goods and negotiations with Ukrainian banks and Ukrposhta regarding opening of the departments in the settlements near EECPs.