The Border Committee of Belarus has stated that it is ready to provide simplified access for residents of Ukraine to Belarusian forests to pick mushrooms and berries.
Points of attention
- Belarus's Border Committee has announced simplified access for Ukrainians to pick mushrooms and berries in Belarusian forests.
- The Ukrainian side is wary of this proposal due to border strengthening efforts and past incursions.
Belarus “lures” Ukrainians to its territory to pick mushrooms and berries
The Border Committee of the Republic of Belarus stated that Belarusian border guards are fully ready to provide seasonal simplified passage for residents of the Ukrainian border region to the territory of the republican landscape reserve "Olmanskie bolota" in the Stolin district of the Brest region.
The border committee noted that Belarus has been doing this "for several years now," guided by "the principles of friendship and good neighborliness and taking into account the needs of ordinary people."
This category of Ukrainian citizens will be able to cross the border at three simplified border crossing points: "Mutvitsya", "Khinichev", "Selyshche" in the directions of the Ukrainian villages of Drozdyn, Berezove and Poznan in the Rivne region, respectively, the Border Committee of the Republic of Belarus stated, adding that they had conveyed this information to the Ukrainian side through diplomatic channels.
The State Border Guard Service of Ukraine has not yet received any notifications from the Republic of Belarus regarding the passage of Ukrainians across the border to pick berries and mushrooms in the forests of Belarus, and if it does, it will not agree to this, because it is dangerous to be in the border area.
This was stated by the spokesman for the State Border Service of Ukraine, Andriy Demchenko.
We do not maintain contact with the Belarusian border guards. The State Border Service of Ukraine did not receive anything from them. And it did not receive it through other channels either. Moreover, Ukraine will not agree to this, because this is a line that is dangerous, and passage to a country that supports a terrorist country is impossible.
Demchenko noted that the practice of allowing Ukrainians across the border to pick wild berries and mushrooms had indeed existed for many years, but this was before the full-scale invasion of Russia, whose troops entered Ukraine, including from the territory of Belarus.
Since 2022, neither stationary checkpoints with the Republic of Belarus nor simplified ones have been operational.
Demchenko emphasized that border guards are currently not recording any attempts to cross the border to collect wild berries and mushrooms. And the border between Ukraine and Belarus itself continues to be strengthened.
