Militants tell about order to limit passage of cars through "DNR" checkpoints on contact line

The "DNR" militants told the OSCE patrol that they were told to artificially limit the flow of vehicles passing through their checkpoints. This is stated in the daily report of the OSCE SMM.

It notes that on 16 June, at the checkpoint of the armed formations near Kreminets, the SMM saw about 300 cars queuing to travel to government-controlled areas and about 70 cars queuing to travel to non-government-controlled areas

"In a group and separately, 18… told the SMM they had concerns related to what they said were long wait times and the introduction of a "regulation" by the armed formations on 1 June that restricted the number of cars permitted to enter the checkpoint to six cars in each direction every 30 minutes", - the SMM report said.

A member of the armed formations at the checkpoint in Olenivka confirmed the Mission's patrol that "the new vehicle restriction "regulation" had been in place for two weeks".

Earlier, eyewitnesses reported huge queues at the checkpoints controlled by the militants in the occupied part of Donetsk oblast. People, forced to cross the line of demarcation, complain that the "DNR/LNR" militants artificially create giant lines at their checkpoints. People spend 5-8 hours in the queues on foot, dozens of cars that have not had time to pass the check at militants checkpoints are forced to stay overnight in the open field. As for checkpoints from the Ukrainian side, according to information of eyewitnesses, their passage is organized at good level and takes little time.

On June 18, a man was hospitalized from a checkpoint controlled by the militants on the Horlivka-Bakhmut road corridor. The man was given first aid at the Horlivka checkpoint and handed over to emergency medical service providers for hospitalization.