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Ukrainian presidential envoy not allowed to enter Russia — Poroshenko's press secretary

According to the Ukrainian official, Ukraine’s presidential envoy for settlement in Donbass Irina Geraschenko is an undesirable individual for entering Russia

KIEV, March 21. /TASS/. Russian border control service has not allowed Ukraine’s presidential envoy for settlement in Donbass Irina Geraschenko to enter the country, Ukrainian president’s press secretary Svyatoslav Tsegolko said on Monday.

"Russian border guards have not allowed Irina Geraschenko to enter Russia after keeping her at the border for three hours. A border guard said that Irina was an undesirable individual for entering Russia," Tsegolko wrote on his Facebook page adding that Geraschenko intended to attend the trial of former Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko.

The press secretary said the incident represents a campaign against the Ukrainian delegation.

TASS has not yet obtained a comment from Russian Federal Security Service’s border control service.

Today the court will start reading the verdict for the former Ukrainian pilot charged under three articles of the Russian Criminal Code "murder", "attempted murder" and "illegal border crossing".

A delegation of Ukrainian representatives, including Tsegolko, Geraschenko and several Verkhovna Rada deputies, plan to attend the reading, .

Russia’s investigators say Savchenko, the gunner of a Mi-24 helicopter, joined the Aidar militant battalion and in June 2014 conducted covert surveillance and direction of artillery bombarding targeting a checkpoint in the much-troubled Lugansk region. The settlement was full of civilians, including three Russian journalists. Two Russian journalists Igor Kornelyuk and Anton Voloshin from the All-Russian Television and Radio Broadcasting Network (VGTRK) died in the shelling.