Jewish pilgrims stranded on the border between Belarus and Ukraine, September 15, 2020. -

/ AP / SIPA

Nearly 2,000 Hasidic Jewish pilgrims called to return home Israel on Thursday called on Hasidic Jewish pilgrims shipwrecked on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border to return.

Their chances of participating in traditional celebrations in Ukraine are nil due to restrictions linked to the novel coronavirus.

Up to 2,000 of these pilgrims who arrived from Israel, but also from France, Great Britain and the United States, are in Belarus and are trying to reach Ukraine on a pilgrimage.

More than a thousand are notably stuck in a “no man's land” in precarious conditions.

Ukrainian authorities have repeatedly said that they will not enter the country, its borders being closed to foreigners because of the Covid-19 pandemic, also accusing the Belarusian neighbor of exacerbating the crisis.

A "completely closed" border

“Ukraine has announced that it will not allow entry into its territory (…).

I call on our citizens to return to Israel and to respect the quarantine measures upon their arrival, ”Israeli Minister of Higher Education and Water Zeev Elkin said Thursday.

Wanting to participate in a pilgrimage to Uman, in central Ukraine, these Hasidic Jews thought they could bypass, via Belarus, the restrictions put in place by Kiev in the face of the resurgence of cases of the new coronavirus on Ukrainian territory.

The thousand people stuck at the border post of Novi Yarylovychi, which the Ukrainian authorities have "completely closed", gave no sign Thursday morning of wanting to turn back, according to Kiev which supplies them with water and food.

Until September 28

“The situation has not changed.

They are around 1,000 at the Ukrainian border and up to 2,000 if you count those who are on Belarusian territory, ”Andriï Demchenko, spokesperson for the Ukrainian border guards, said Thursday, who assures us that the situation is“ calm ".

“They dance, sing and pray,” he added.

Every year at the time of the Jewish New Year, tens of thousands of pilgrims go to Uman to pray at the tomb of Rabbi Nahman of Breslev (1772-1810), the founder of a branch of ultra-Orthodox Judaism, Hasidism.

The pilgrimage is scheduled to last from September 18 to 28.

This year, there are just 2,000 pilgrims to Uman, according to one of them, Moshe Garcin, 44, who arrived with "the last plane" before the Ukrainian border closed on August 27.

“Belarus is blocked, closed.

People are starting to return to Israel, ”he told AFP by phone.

"False statements"

“All customs are closed, they don't bring anyone in.

They even started to close customs via Poland and other countries through which we could have passed to Ukraine, ”he added.

This crisis was compounded Wednesday by a diplomatic quarrel between Ukraine and Belarus, Kiev accusing Minsk of wanting to instrumentalize the situation, against the backdrop of tensions between the two capitals after the contested Belarusian presidential election of August 9.

The Ukrainian presidency called on the Belarusian authorities to "stop exacerbating" this crisis at the border and "not to peddle false statements that bring hope to the pilgrims" about its opening.

Belarusian President Alexander Loukachenko on Tuesday asked him to "open a humanitarian corridor" to Uman for pilgrims.

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