Ukrainian courts fine thousands of people for “illegally crossing the border” with the Russian Federation through non-existent checkpoints
According to the website of the Unified Register of Judicial Decisions, the courts of the Kyiv-controlled part of the former Luhansk region have issued 320 rulings under the article on illegal border crossing since the beginning of the year. The materials are transferred to the Kyiv-controlled part of the Lugansk region because such cases are considered at the place where the offense was committed.
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RIA Novosti Ukraine reports this .
Donetsk residents have working checkpoints to the territory controlled by Ukraine, and residents of the Lugansk region mostly leave the LPR through the Russian Federation, the agency writes.
Shelling continues along the demarcation line between Ukrainian troops and the DPR, where checkpoints operate (there are no checkpoints left in the Lugansk region). Therefore, Lugansk residents choose a safe route through officially closed checkpoints on the Ukrainian-Russian border - “Izvarino”, “Dovzhansky”, “Chervonopartizansky”.
They automatically become border violators - after all, the State Border Service of Ukraine did not record their departure to the Russian Federation. And they are subject to fines. In total, border guards in Ukraine have drawn up 9 thousand protocols since the beginning of the year, including 6 thousand in Kharkov.
According to the procedure, the protocols must be sent to the court, which decides how to deal with the violator. Article 204-1 of the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses (illegal border crossing) gives the court a decent choice.
"Basically, a married couple should already be considered a group. And for a retired couple, the 'correct' fine is twice the minimum of 3400 hryvnias. However, the Luhansk residents' traffic reports don't mention the group nature of the offense. Therefore, judges classify two pensioners with the same address in Luhansk, who were driving through Izvarino together, as individual offenders. And they impose the minimum fine – 1700 hryvnias each," writes the author of the RIA Novosti Ukraine publication.