Governor of Russia’s Pskov region Mikhail Vedernikov has commented on the queues of Ukrainian refugees on the borders with Latvia and Estonia on his Telegram channel.
“There are many Ukrainian citizens among those leaving. There’s a big flow of people, and everyone is different: some are trying to export foreign currency beyond the legislated limit, along with antique items, art pieces, and banned goods. There are also draft-age Russian citizens. For obvious reasons, they all undergo the corresponding checks. Our neighbours are in no hurry to let them through either,” Vedernikov said.
The governor added that he ordered the local officials to set up shops selling basic necessities near the border, and to establish warming and rain protection sites.
According to Fontanka newspaper, the queues on the Russian-Latvian and Russian-Estonian border started to appear in the second half of September, reaching a peak by the end of the month. “Hundreds of people spend 3 to 7 days in the queues at both border checkpoints. They sleep on the ground, many of them have no money, many have run out of food. There are over 200 people at Kunichina Gora (another bus has arrived today). I asked the people who were first in line, right in front of the barrier, how long they spent in the queue: a mother with two children said they’d been there for over six days. I think there are over 1,000 people at Shumilkino [border checkpoint], no one knows for sure,” volunteers working on site told the newspaper.
