Russia Closes Border with Ukraine

Russia Closes Border with Ukraine

utro.ru
Edited autotranslation by Quemado Institute
September 2, 2015

In the area of the Russian city of Donetsk [the city in Russia, not the DPR capital — QI editor] a fence will be erected. The Border Guard Department of the FSB of Russia in the Rostov region posted a public procurement order online for the construction of the protective fence in the Rostov region of Donetsk [Russia], bordering Ukraine. The height of the construction is 2 meters, the length, 3.22 km.

“The construction will be made to curb illegal activity on the state border,” said the representative office. They clarify that these engineering structures are built on the most popular sections of the state border. Under the contract, a fence has been erected of welded fence sections 2 to 2.5 m with a V-shaped tip and reinforced barbed tape. Completion is scheduled for December 1st, 2015. Earlier, in May 2015 it was reported that on the border with Ukraine, in the Rostov region, about 140 km of engineering structures were built, including about 100 km of ditches and fences of more than 40 km. It is reported that the work was done before, but is being intensified in connection with an increase in attempts to smuggle arms and ammunition, and to prevent illegal crossing of the state border from Ukraine by car.

In the Bryansk sector of the border with Ukraine at the beginning of this year, a competition was also held for work on the creation of anti-tank ditches on the border, but the border guards also noted that these measures are in no way connected with the aggravation of the situation in Ukraine, and were planned in 2012.

Prior to that, the intention was to build a modern powerful complex of fortifications on the border with Russia, known as “The Wall” (later it was renamed the “European Wave”), said the government of Ukraine. Kiev is planning to implement the project in three years. Experts believe that the arrangement of the border with Russia on the principles applicable in Israel is unlikely to meet the deadline set by politicians.

According to the plan of builders, along nearly two thousand Km of the Ukrainian-Russian border anti-vehicle ditches will be dug with a width of 4 m and a depth of 2, 17-meter metal observation towers will be installed, surveillance placed, along with alarms, as well as support at the border crossings. The wall will be erected in the vicinity of the territory of the “anti-terrorist operation”, that is, around the DPR and LPR, as well as at the present border of the peninsula of Crimea.

The amount required for the construction of this grand structure will be 4 billion USD, or approximately $ 200 million [sic?]. The Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers has approved the estimate of “The Wall” construction and signed a decree on the allocation of money for the construction of the country’s budget. The funds will be spent until 2019; in 2015 1 billion hryvnia will be spent. The government has signed a decree on the direction of the project from the budget. — Elizabeth Barkov, 14:29, 02/09/2015