From September 15 to October 15, as part of the project Front-line Inspection the NGO Foundation.101 carried out daily monitoring of the entry and exit Checkpoint “Zaitsev” (on the road corridor “Horlovks-Artemovsk”) in the Donetsk region.
Given that inspection of vehicles at the checkpoint is quite fast (the average estimated time for inspection of one vehicle is 1-3 minutes), the daily monitoring recorded, long queues of vehicles waiting to pass through. According to the Foundation.101 the reason for this is the large number of people in transit to cross the contact line and the presence of only two working controlled-entry and exit points in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions: checkpoints “Zaitsev” and “Novotroitske.”
It is worth noting that in August, Zaitsev was reconfigured in order to increase capacity, so now everyone is directed towards three inspection groups working simultaneously, and in some cases an extra mobile inspection group works. However, this is has only partially accelerated the checking process at the checkpoints, because the load on each of them remains high. Consequently, according to Foundation.101, it would be worth considering opening other control points on routes not under fire from the aggressor.
The other reason for the increase in queues is recurrent cases of electricity and/or communication loss in the checkpoint territory that prevents the process of verification of vehicles and people.
Foundation.101 reports no gross violations of human rights or cases of bribery by inspection employees, however did record isolated cases of rude treatment towards citizens and humiliation of human dignity and honor perpetrated by State Fiscal Service of Ukraine (SFSU) employees.
There have been recorded cases of the absence of representative cards (badges) among SFSU staff, which complicates the identification of them in case of violations on their part.
From citizens who travel to the checkpoints on the regular buses before being forced to cross by foot complaints recorded include the lack of sun and rain, and places for the elderly to rest.
The results of the first month of monitoring have been collated and Foundation.101 has sent its recommendations for improving the conditions of the entrance/exit regime to the relevant authorities of Ukraine.
