ROSTOV-ON-DON, June 05./ITAR-TASS/. All the checkpoints on Russia’s border with Ukraine in the southern Rostov Region are operating in a normal mode, spokesman for the regional department of Russia’s Border Guard Service Vasily Malayev said on Thursday.

The news agency Novorossiya based in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics in east Ukraine reported on Thursday that Ukrainian border guards at the Dolzhansky and Krasny Partizan checkpoints in the Luhansk region had voluntarily disarmed and left the bases.

The Russian Border Guard Service spokesman said there had been no changes in the work of the Russian checkpoints on the border with Ukraine and citizens were crossing into the territory of the neighboring country in accordance with the established check procedures.

Novorossiya news agency reported that for security reasons the border guards from the Dolzhansky checkpoint had decided cross into the territory of Russia.

“Overall, there were 26 border guards on duty. Most of them plan to stay in Russia for fear of revenge from the Kiev authorities,” Novorossiya said.

The Dolzhansky checkpoint borders with the Russian Novoshakhtinsk border crossing point, which continues to work in a normal regime like all the other Russian checkpoints, the Russian Border Guard Service spokesman said.

The eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions held local referendums on May 11, at which an overwhelming majority of local residents voted for independence from Ukraine. Kiev is conducting a punitive military operation in the east in an attempt to quell residence and bring the regions back under control.