Key checkpoint in eastern Ukraine closed hours after opening

Ukrainian authorities on Thursday closed a key checkpoint to civilian traffic in the country's Lugansk region just hours after its opening, citing security concerns.

"In order to keep people out of danger, we decided to temporarily close the checkpoint in Zolotoe village." said Georgy Tuka, head of Lugansk regional administration, on Twitter, without giving exact reasons for the closure.

Meanwhile, Darya Olifer, the spokesperson for Kiev representative in Minsk Trilateral Contact Group on Ukraine crisis, said that the checkpoint, the only one in Lugansk region that allows passage of cars, was closed because independence-seeking insurgents refused to allow movements through it.

"Representatives of certain areas of Lugansk region did not allow them (people) either to drive or go by foot through the crossing point despite all the agreements," she said.

Later in the day, a representative of the self-proclaimed Lugansk republic Vladislav Deinego said that insurgents refused to allow people passing through the checkpoint as the area around it is littered by landmines.

The agreement to open the checkpoint in Zolotoe was reached in late January in Minsk, capital of Belarus, during the meeting of the Trilateral Contact Group on the crisis in Donbas, which covers both Donetsk and Lugansk.

The crossing point is capable of allowing about 5,000 people and 1,500 vehicles moving daily between the areas controlled by the Ukrainian army and the rebels. It is considered as an important step to improve the humanitarian situation in Lugansk region. Endit