EU ambassador concerned about railway blockade in Donbas

17:29, 14.02.2017 1 min read

Head of the EU Delegation in Ukraine Hugues Mingarelli has expressed concern over the blocking of the railway in Donbas and noted that people on both sides of the contact line suffer from this blockade.

Speaking at the forum on reform priorities in Kyiv on Tuesday, Mingarelli said the EU was concerned over the railway blockade in the past two weeks.

He said they are aware that the situation is difficult and a lot of smuggling is happening across the contact line.

However, these are local residents on both sides of the contact line, who suffer most from the recent developments and this should not be happening, the diplomat added.

As earlier reported, veterans from Anti-Terrorism Operation (ATO) operations and Verkhovna Rada deputies in late January blocked the Luhansk-Lysychansk-Popasna railway line at Horske-Zolote in order to intercept illegal trade with Russia-backed militant groups. The checkpoint of the blockade was named "Bohdan Redoubt." Later, they blocked the Svitlanovo railway station.