Ukrainian border guards have confirmed that they have not let activist of Russia's Memorial Human Rights Center Vitaly Ponomarev into Ukraine because of the decision to deny him entry into the country.
“There is the instruction by a competent agency in Ukraine to ban him from entering [the country],” an aide to the head of the Ukrainian State Border Service, Serhiy Astakhov, told Interfax-Ukraine.
Earlier, the Memorial Human Rights Center reported that the Ukrainian authorities had not let its activist Vitaly Ponomarev into Ukraine due to a ban on his entry into the country. The report notes that Ponomarev spent two-and-a-half hours at the Lviv airport and then he was sent to Russia.
According to the report, the human rights defender arrived in Lviv to attend a court hearing in the case of two Russians who sought asylum in Ukraine. The hearing is scheduled for Nov. 6 at Lviv District Administrative Court.
