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Developments in eastern Ukraine

Militia claim Ukrainian soldiers laying mines near Stanitsa Luganskaya

It's being done to prevent people from leaving or entering the village using bypass routes

© EPA/TASSVAKHTANG BARKALYA

MOSCOW, June 1. /TASS/. Ukrainian servicemen are reinforcing the blockade of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR), laying minefields near the Kiev-controlled Stanitsa Luganskaya locality and along the Seversky Donets River, which has already claimed lives, a spokesman for the LPR People’s Militia said Monday.

"After [head of the military-civil administration of the Luhansk Region Gennady] Moskal closed for two months the checkpoint to Stanitsa [Luganskaya], people have been trying to leave the locality or enter it using bypass routes. To prevent that, Ukrainian soldiers have started actively laying mines at all available entrances to Stanitsa," LuganskInformCenter quoted the spokesman as saying.

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"At some sections," according to People’s Militia data, "the servicemen are mounting barbed wire for people to be unable to leave the inhabited locality."

"Three people, according to our information, were blown up on a tripwire on the outskirts of Stanitsa, near the Seversky Donets River, last Sunday. Two of them died," the spokesman said.

On May 22, Ukrainian soldiers, without explanations, blocked a pedestrian passage across the Stanitsa Luganskaya bridge after regional head Gennady Moskal ordered to shut the passage down for three days.

Representatives of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), who arrived at the site, said that on May 23 the checkpoint will be opened if both sides open no fire over 24 hours. In the morning of May 23, Ukrainian servicemen started partially letting residents of Kiev-controlled territory pass to Stanitsa Luganskaya. People registered in the territory of the LPR were allowed to enter the republic.

Later Moskal ordered to shut the passage down for 60 days. Residents of Stanitsa Luganskaya hold daily rallies near the building of the regional state administration demanding that the checkpoint be opened. Ukrainian soldiers disperse protest rallies using assault rifle buttstocks and fire into the air.

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Eastern Ukraine

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