The accredited observers from other states have begun to come to Ukraine

Petro Tsyhykal, the Head of the Border Guard Service of Ukraine State Border Guard Service of Ukraine

The Russian observers did not officially cross the Ukrainian border as Petro Tsyhykal, the Head of the Border Guard Service of Ukraine, reported.

“There was no such precedent when the Russian observers arrived. None of the Russian observers crossed the Ukrainian border officially,” he said.

According to him, the Border Guard Service cooperates with the Central Election Commission, the Security Service and the National Police on the pass of the foreign observer and Ukraine got about 2,000 application from other countries.

“The foreign observers are accredited, accordingly, the Central Election Commission provided us with the list. We preliminary check them and only after that they arrive in Ukraine,” Tsyhykal said.

According to him, “the number of people, who want to cross the state border with some violations or people, who possibly involved in the activity of the illegal armed formations; people, who can smuggle prohibited things increased.”

Petro Tsyhykal added that when the Russians disguised as the OSCE representatives and foreign mass media come to Ukraine, the border guards do not let them in.

He also reminded that the Border Guard Service has been working in an enhanced regime since 2014.

“But as for today, there are some peculiarities due to which we increased the number of the border guard units, use the reserves of the service. Today, about 7,000 of the personnel report for duty daily at 157 checkpoints and 1,300 people are in reserve, who help us to enhance the work,” Tsyhykal said.

As we reported, the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, the principal institution of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (ODIHR OSCE) included 24 Russians into the list of short-term observers for the presidential elections in Ukraine.

The Verkhovna Rada registered the bill No.9524 which calls for ruling out the participation of the observers from the aggressor state in the presidential and parliamentary elections in Ukraine.

ODIHR offered to include two citizens of Russia to the list of the mission on the observation of the Ukrainian presidential elections on 31 March 2019, despite the conditions declared by Ukraine.

As we reported earlier, The Central Election Commission (CEC) of Ukraine has created 199 district election commissions for the upcoming presidential election on March 31.

The election campaign has officially started on December 31, 2018. Registration of the candidates was closed on February 4, 2019, and on February 9, the final list of presidential candidates is expected to appear. The candidates would be able to withdraw their candidacy until March 7, 2019.