Ukrainian men deported from Russia stuck in legal limbo on Georgian border

A group of 17 Ukrainian deportees from Russia are currently stranded on the Russian-Georgian border without documents, independent news outlet Holod reported on Thursday.

One of the men, 31-year-old Oleksandr Shulgin, told Holod the group was living in a windowless basement at the Dariali checkpoint. He said his documents were taken from him when he was detained in Russia in January, and that he had been deposited at the Georgian border without them on 2 August.

Shulgin, who holds Ukrainian citizenship, said he had lived in Russia for 10 years but was detained by police in January for violating immigration procedures. He was taken into custody for seven and a half months before being released without charge and deposited at the Georgian border, where he has been ever since, he said.

He said none of his fellow Ukrainians stranded at the border, some of whom had been there for around two months, had been allowed to enter Georgia. The other men, whom Holod did not identify, are either former prisoners whose sentences had ended or migrant workers expelled from Russia for not having the correct paperwork. Some of the men have tuberculosis.

“It’s damp … and condensation drips off the pipes. We’re being held in captivity. We can’t go out onto the street and nobody tells us anything. … Volunteers bring us food once a week, thankfully. But we don’t know how anything works or who we should turn to,” Shulgin said.

This is not the first time that Ukrainians taking a circuitous route home from Russia via Georgia have become stranded at the border. In August 2023, six former prisoners waited 11 days at the border, while 17 former prisoners spent two weeks surviving in similarly bleak conditions there in October. In November, a group of eight former prisoners became so desperate that they threatened to self-harm in an attempt to draw attention to their plight.