In the area of the Joint Forces Operation on July 8, armed formations of the Russian Federation violated the ceasefire 9 times, including from weapons that should have long been withdrawn from the contact line, - the JFO headquarters reported. The headquarters emphasized that measures to repel and deter armed aggression of the Russian Federation were carried out under conditions when part of the army reserves from the Joint Forces was involved in the suppression of fire in the Luhansk oblast. Three members of the Joint Force were injured over the current day. Units of the Joint Forces resolutely responded to all the enemy fire actions, having forced the occupiers to return to compliance with the "ceasefire". Situation in the area of the operation remains controlled.
Threatening with weapons, the "DNR" militants did not let people who were not included in the list of the so-called "headquarters" into the occupied territory through the Olenivka checkpoint on July 7. This was reported by the Right to Protection charity fund on its Facebook. "83 people who were in front of the checkpoint on the territory not controlled by Ukraine and who were not on the list were dispersed by armed people at the checkpoint on the part of the uncontrolled territory. Force was used towards 15 men; they sustained bodily injuries. The phones of people who tried to capture these events on video were smashed", - the message said. It was indicated that all 83 people were later forcibly put on buses and taken to the "zero" checkpoint in the territory not controlled by Ukraine. After, 49 people left to wait at the "zero", the rest went to the territory controlled by the Ukrainian government.
So-called "Minister of Health of the DNR" Olga Dolgoshapko explained "from a medical point of view" why the "republic" refuses to let people whom it calls its "citizens" into the territory controlled by the occupiers. According to her, after the one-day opening of the Olenivka checkpoint on June 22, two of the residents arrived from the controlled territory "were infected with COVID-19, two had open tuberculosis and two more turned out to have mental disorders". This way, she justified the actions of the "DNR" authorities, which refuse unhindered passage of citizens registered in the occupied territory of Donetsk oblast through the contact line.
Occupation authorities of the "DNR" insist that the Ukrainian border guards on the contact line should comply with the orders of the "interagency headquarters to combat COVID-19" created by the militants. This was stated by press officer of the so-called "Ministry of State Security of the DNR" Mikhail Popov at a briefing on the situation at the Olenivka checkpoint. The "DNR" tried to blame the poor organization of the "humanitarian corridor" announced by the occupation authorities on the Ukrainian side. The aforementioned press officer of the "Ministry of State Security" stated that what happened near the Olenivka checkpoint was "another provocation from the Ukrainian side". "All departures should be agreed. It is possible to enter only after the permission of the Interagency headquarters can", - the militants' representative stated.