A 70-year-old woman is registered in one of the largest oncological centers in Ukraine, where she regularly undergoes a course of treatment prescribed by doctors.
On April 5, the Crimean woman and her husband tried to leave Crimea through the Armiansk Russian checkpoint (opposite the Kalanchak Ukrainian checkpoint). The woman had called in advance the “hot lines” of Ukrainian and Russian border services. And she had been told that she could leave, because she had a vital reason. The woman has a Ukrainian passport and all necessary medical documents confirming the diagnosis and the need for treatment. But the Russian border guards rejected the sick woman referring to the fact that she was a holder of the Russian passport (she had to receive it in Crimea) and that she could, as they thought, be treated at the place of her residence registration in the peninsula.
According to a relative of the Crimean woman, her husband was denied leaving Crimea at once, while regarding the woman, the border guards were consulting with the senior staff for a long time, but finally they did not let her through.
“They frightened her that the Ukrainian border guards would not let her in, and then they, the Russian border guards, would not let her go back to Crimea, and she would remain in the neutral territory, between the checkpoints,” the Crimean woman relative said.
Ms Olha Skrypnyk, Head of Crimean Human Rights Group, explains that the Ukrainian border guards, according to CMU Ordinance no 319-r, would let the woman in since a need to take a cancer treatment session is one of the humanitarian nature reasons for passing the checkpoint, irrespective to the residence registration place. A decision on passing due to such reasons would be taken by Chairman of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine. But the Russian border guards deprived the Ukrainian national of the treatment she needs.
“In my opinion, now the Crimean woman is in a dangerous situation, since we know that the level of medicine in Crimea after the occupation has deteriorated significantly. As to the cancer treatment, for example, the level of diagnostics has fallen sharply, and many oncologists left the peninsula. In this situation, the Russian Federation not only deprived the Ukrainian national of freedom of movement, but also created serious threats to her life and health, because now it is not possible for the woman to have the necessary treatment in Crimea, and that’s why she has been treated in a medical institution in Ukraine-controlled territory, ” – summed up Ms. Skrypnyk.
