Works on engineering and technical maintenance of the Ukrainian-Russian border ("The Wall" project) has started in Luhansk region, the Deputy Prime Minister for the temporarily occupied territories and internally displaced persons, Ex-governor of Luhansk Regional Military and Civil Administration, current Deputy Minister for Occupied Territories Heorhiy Tuka said.

"I want to say that the works have already been started. Expert teams of geologists, surveyors have arrived. We are currently working on research of soil constitution, preparatory works for the Assignment Specification implementation. Two powerful groups are working, which are moving along the border moving towards each other from opposite directions," Tuka said on 112 TV channel on Saturday.

He stated with regret that specialists had found two pieces of land that local farmers had planted with grain crops in spite of all the warnings.

"In my opinion, if there is the right fundraising, it is absolutely realistic to build all the planned facilities," the deputy minister responded to the presenter's question whether it is real to build "The Wall" in the scheduled date until 2018.

He also said it was not about the wall itself. "There will be a border mesh in some areas to prevent border crossing by people or livestock. Antitank ditches will be built in some extremely dangerous sites to guard against tank attacks," Tuka said.

In September 2014 former Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatseniuk announced the beginning of the project "The Wall".

In late 2015 head of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine Viktor Nazarenko informed that the project "The Wall" implementation was at that time focused on the territory of Chernihiv and Kharkiv regions.