Marek Szczygieł, the Head of the European Union Monitoring Mission in Georgia, on Thursday welcomed the temporary opening of the Odzisi crossing point into central Georgia's Russian-occupied Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) region by the de facto authorities for the Orthodox Easter celebrations.
Szczygieł said the issue of opening crossing points had been “intensively” discussed and advocated by the Co-facilitators in the Ergneti Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism format, a platform for facilitating talks between Georgian agencies and de facto authorities of the occupied regions.
Freedom of movement restrictions have a negative impact on the daily life of the conflict-affected population,” the EUMM statement on the matter said.
The de facto authorities of the Russian-occupied Akhalgori municipality in central Georgia opened the crossings over the administrative boundary line in anticipation of the Orthodox Easter celebrations this weekend.
The crossing had been closed since September 2019.