KYIV. March 31 (Interfax) - A checkpoint in Zolote on the road corridor between Stakhanov, Zolote, Hirne and Lysychansk in the Luhansk region, about two kilometers from the dividing line, was closed a few hours after opening, said Heorhiy Tuka, head of the Luhansk regional military-civilian administration.
The decision was made for safety reasons, he said. "So as not to expose people to danger, it was decided to temporarily close the checkpoint in Zolote.... As we had promised, we opened the checkpoint in Zolote. For their part, terrorists did not," Tuka wrote on Twitter on Thursday.
Darya Olifer, press secretary for Ukraine's second president Leonid Kuchma, who represents the country in the Trilateral Contact Group, has confirmed that the work of the newly opened checkpoint was hindered by representatives of the breakaway parts of the Luhansk region.
"The Ukrainian side did all the necessary work and kept its word: on March 31, 2016, vehicles and people were able to drive and walk through Zolote. But representatives of the separate districts of the Luhansk region did not let them either drive or walk through, contrary to all the agreements reached by the economic and humanitarian subgroups and by the Trilateral Contact Group," she wrote on Facebook.
Such actions are seen as a gross violation of the Minsk agreements, "given that the question of a checkpoint opening had been raised continually by representatives of the separate districts of the Luhansk region themselves," Olifer said
It took Ukraine about three months to build this checkpoint, because of the constant shelling of workers and the building equipment, she said.
For their part, the self-proclaimed Luhansk People's Republic (LPR) said earlier that the opening by Ukraine of the pedestrian checkpoint in the town of Zolote was a provocation.
"This event is of a provocative nature, and can be used by Ukraine as a pretext to accuse LPR leadership and our people's militia of unwillingness to continue the peace dialogue and the Minsk agreements in general," LPR militia spokesman Andrey Marochko said at a briefing on Thursday.
LPR representatives repeatedly offered the Ukrainians and the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) mission to open a checkpoint in the town of Shchastya, which is "more favorable for crossing and can provide more comfortable conditions for crossing by citizens of both our republic and of Ukraine," the spokesman said.
For his part, senior LPR militiaman O. Anashchenko said the Ukrainian military could shell the checkpoint and its surroundings "so as to accuse the people's militia of it later."
"Which is why I urge both our and Ukrainian citizens to refrain, for now, from crossing this checkpoint, if it is opened today," Anashchenko advised local residents.