Three times Anna was already on track 1. She was dismissed three times. With a Russian passport nobody comes along, had to listen to the 71-year-old from the train attendants. The Ukrainian night train from Kursk Station in Moscow drove without them to Kharkiv, Ukraine, about 740 kilometers to the south.

But Anna is not a woman who simply lets herself be sent away. Every year in December she travels to her now 80-year-old cousin, exchanging gifts, spending a few days together. That's the family tradition.

So far, Anna has always somehow managed to preserve this tradition, even after the annexation of Crimea by Russia over four years ago and the Moscow-sponsored and supported war in the Donbas, which has now killed more than 10,000 people. And she wants to do it again - a few days after Russian border guards rammed and shot at three Ukrainian military ships off the Crimean peninsula.

Try number four

The feisty lady is back in the evening on track 1. Everyone was afraid, just did not want to do anything wrong, says Anna. "At the top, someone makes a decision, and below, they do not know what to do." Like many, she prefers not to give her full name because she is worried about difficulties for her family.

With "above" Anna means the Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko. He has imposed a ban on entry into the country after the proclamation of martial law in ten border areas of the country. Officially, it only affects Russian men from 16 to 60 years. The Kiev government wants to prevent Moscow from building "private armies" on its soil.

"Down" - these are the Ukrainian conductors. Why they have repeatedly refused to take Russian women, they do not say. Upon request, they declare "only recommendations to travelers".

This time, they let the petite woman climb into the car. Anna wants to read, sleep a bit.

The train starts. It takes more than ten hours to reach the border, with just six wagons heading for Belgorod, the last Russian city before the border. It is less than 40 kilometers away.

MIRROR ONLINE

Railway station in Belgorod

No clear rules

"Can they let me in?", Asks an elderly gentleman with gray hair and fur hat at the bus station in front of Belgorod train station. "Are you over 60 years old then yes," the Ukrainian bus driver tries to calm down. "I'm over there," smiles the man with the red passport.

Everyone here knows the news about rejected people. Journalists who were able to submit invitations, but also elderly men and women who wanted to funerals and medical treatments, had appropriate papers. Actually, these are humanitarian reasons for which exceptions are made. But in times of escalation rules do not seem to apply, they are at best a kind of orientation guide. In fact, the individual case decides - and that scares off many, even if there are positive exceptions, such as students from Kharkiv universities, which were interviewed for hours by Ukrainian border guards and then reindurften.

Especially women get on the bus, as in Anna's train, there are many Ukrainians with their blue passports. 14 buses run daily to Kharkiv, many of the places remain empty that day.

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Bus to Kharkiv

Who does not have to, does not go to Ukraine

Even the "taxi mafia" has barely to do. This is how Oleg calls the dark-clad men waiting for passengers in the cold snow to the border. If you do not have to, you will not go to Ukraine anymore. Oleg, 50, from Kursk, has to. His mother had a stroke, he says. Oleg knows that the chances are bad with his red Russian pass. He was with the army.

That Poroshenko has now declared martial law, Oleg finds too late, but right. But he is in the minority, many of the people here complain about the Ukrainian leader, who wants to profile before the presidential election in late March. Which - and this is the version that the Russian state television likes to present - is controlled by the Americans. For a long time it is no longer about the reasons of the conflict, the Russian aggressions. Who is to blame? Many wave off. They only see what that means for their everyday life: "The Ukrainians are crazy, they block us out," says a taxi driver.

Addressing the Kerch escalation, Oleg says: "That was an incident, look at the thousands of incidents in Donetsk and Luhansk." He refers to the daily firefights, the reports of Russia's support for the separatists with weapons and money. "Russia is such a strong country, Ukraine so weak, how can a civilized country attack a weak neighbor, we are brothers and sisters."

Crack through the region

Nearly half of the 1.5 million inhabitants of the Belgorod region are said to have relatives on the Ukrainian side. The metropolis of Kharkiv with its 1.4 million inhabitants, which is 40 kilometers away from the border, has long been the reference point of many Russians in the border area. They drove there for shopping, went out, flew from Kharkiv on vacation. Although Belgorod claims to have an international airport, most of the 15 or so flights per day go to Moscow.

Andrei Majsak knows the stories of Russians, who now land at Kharkiv airport and are not allowed to enter. Artyom, 30 years old, came at night from Egypt vacation with his wife, both had an invitation from their Ukrainian aunt. The wife was allowed to enter, Artyom not. He had to fly via Minsk to Moscow and from there to Belgorod. A whole day he was on the road, 23,000 rubles cost him, more than 300 euros, in the Russian regions, it is more than a monthly salary. Since October 2015, Ukrainian and Russian airlines are no longer allowed to fly directly from Ukraine to Russia.

Majsak, a 37-year-old lawyer, and his family moved to a village near Belgorod - because of his son. The small town is located near the four-lane M2, to Kharkiv and on to the

MIRROR ONLINE

Andrei Majsak with his son

Crimea leads. There is not much going on at lunchtime. Only twice does the driver have to operate the windscreen wipers because an overtaking vehicle has left slush on his windshield. At the border stands a single Russian official at the gate, from time to time he passes a car. Two women pull suitcases through the snow.

Stricter regulations

It used to take up to two hours to wait at the border crossing, says Majsak. He had to watch how Kiev, after the aggression of Moscow, tightened the rules for Russian citizens:

  • In April 2014, following the annexation of the Crimea, the Ukrainian Border Guard issued stricter rules for Russian men aged 16 to 60 years. Since then they have been questioned more or less in detail, but many could still pass the border.
  • In 2015, Ukraine banned Russian citizens entry by ID card. You must now present a passport.

A "crack" speaks of Majsak, who is hard to bear. He used to go to Kharkiv regularly. His six-year-old son Igor is autistic. He needs therapies every three months. That's why the move. In neighboring Kharkiv there is a special clinic. "There are very good doctors there that we do not have here," says Majsak.

He would have to go to Petersburg or Moscow with his son to guarantee a comparable care for his child. This is far away and three times more expensive than in Kharkiv, where the one-week treatment already costs around one thousand euros. Therefore, his wife now drives to the clinic with Igor. "But what if she's sick longer?" Asks Majsak.

AP

Ukrainian border guards

Travel canceled

He does not want to go to Ukraine anymore. "No one knows what's going on, what if I'm held there, I have a family." Officially, more than a thousand Russians have been turned down, but such figures barely say anything if only a few try. Many have canceled their New Year trips to Ukraine.

On December 28, martial law should end. That it is then relaxed, Majsak does not believe. "Peace will only come when we get new presidents, Ukrainians will soon have elections, they are democratic, but here ..."

At least there is good news on this day. Anna answers by phone: Everything's fine, she says. She was allowed to stay in the train after some discussions.

She made it once again to Kharkiv.