7 minutes agoWhat happened to the border walls between Ukraine and Russia?
Periskopi(8 years ago)
(8 years ago)A doll model with a green beret on its head stands on the border in front of Russia. On the ground, border guards patrol the area along a green fence of two metres crowned with razor wire. In September 2014, the then prime minister of Ukraine, Arseniy Petrovych Yatsenyuk, had declared a plan in fortification [...]
In September 2014, then prime minister of Ukraine Arseniy Petrovych Yatsenyuk had declared a plan to fortify the border with Russia.
Called “Wall Project”, he kept promise of a new start for post-European Ukraine, caught in a war with separatists backed by Russia in Donbas.
But a corruption scandal has questioned the entire wall project. So far, only 15 percent of the wall has been built and is unlikely to be completed by the end of 2018, reports “Al Jazeera”, the Periscope broadcast.
In August and November last year, eight people from border guards and local contractors from Kharkivi were detained on corruption charges.
In February 2018, many border guards, including Kharkiwi representatives, have been arrested. It's still not confirmed if the arrests are related to this project.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the border between Ukraine and Russia has been controversial.
The 2,000-pound border reflected the dark border between the former Soviet republics. Until recently, citizens of both countries can cross the administrative border with internal passports.
In August 2014, Russia moved the army into Donbas, in eastern Ukraine, a movement followed by the Euromian revolution and the fall of Ukraine's president, Viktor Yanuovich. Soon Ukraine will lose 400 kilometers of its border.
The fence was to stop the movement of weapons, illegal migration, and act as the first line of defense.
In a symbolic way, he intended to mark a division between neighbours. For post-Maidan Ukrainians, Russia was the source of their country's diseases: corruption, failed institutions and cynical apathy of the post-Soviet world.
Since 2014, only part of the planned funding had come.
In 2017 the allocated funds constituted only 22 percent of the plan. In January of that year, the project was halted due to lack of funds.
So after 83 miles [83 km] of fence and 273 miles [273 km] of trench, it is forest and field that separate Ukraine from Russia.
Last July, Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) an FBI-trained agency tasked with investigating corruption ) said it was investigating the $3.6m embezzlement from the Wall Project.
When asked about the Wall's Project, the guards admit that the fence is unlikely to protect Ukraine from Russian invasion, but may help buy time. /Periscopi/
