Several hundred Hasidic Jews were stuck on the neutral territory of the Belarusian border, waiting for permission to enter Ukraine for a traditional pilgrimage ahead of the Rosh Hashanah celebration. Footage taken on Tuesday shows crowds of people sitting on the ground with their luggage between the “New Yarilovichi” and “New Guta” checkpoints.

The pilgrims were heading to the Ukrainian city of Uman for the traditional Jewish new year celebration called Rosh Hashanah at the grave of the Reb Nachman of Bratslav. This year, Hasidim are not allowed to enter Ukraine, as the state border is closed to foreigners from August 28 to September 28 due to the coronavirus pandemic. “The work of the Ukrainian checkpoint ‘Novye Yarilovichi’ has not been resumed.

The number of people registered to leave the Republic of Belarus for Ukraine is more than 780 people, including more than 130 children under the age of 18.

All of them passed the border control to leave Belarus, and are currently located in the territory between the mentioned checkpoints,” said the official representative of the State Border Committee of Belarus Yuri Kupriyanov. The official added that due to the current situation, the Belarusian Red Cross provided the pilgrims with warm blankets, tents and food.