Stanytsia Luhanska / Photo from www.osce.org

A temporary bypass bridge will be built while the destroyed automobile bridge is being repaired in Stanytsia Luhanska in Donbas.

This was announced by Chairman of Luhansk Regional State Administration and head of the regional military-civil administration Vitaliy Komarnytsky at a press conference in Severodonetsk.

According to him, there are no blueprints for repairing the bridge across the Siversky Donets River yet, but they are being drafted.

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The temporary bypass bridge will be built for the convenience of citizens during the repairs, he said.

Read alsoFirst stage of mine clearance completed in Luhansk region

According to him, a social bus service is now operating at the Stanytsia Luhanska checkpoint, which carries people over a distance of 800 meters. Platforms for people and vehicles have been expanded.

What is more, an electric vehicle for eight passengers, which was provided by the UN, will start transporting people at that stretch from August 16, he said.

As UNIAN reported, the Armed Forces of Ukraine and Russia-led forces started disengaging weapons and troops in the area of Stanytsia Luhanska on June 26. The disengagement ended on June 30. The process was monitored by the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine.

On July 8, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky declared that Ukraine was ready to unilaterally begin rebuilding the destroyed bridge in Stanytsia Luhanska if the dismantling of concrete fortifications did not begin from the side of the occupied territories within a week. On July 16, Deputy Head of the President's Office Vadym Prystaiko said that during a meeting of advisers to the Normandy Four leaders, Russian envoy Vladislav Surkov undertook to "influence" the proxy forces to dismantle the fortifications. On July 18, Ukraine's representative in the political subgroup of the Trilateral Contact Group on Donbas settlement in Minsk, Roman Bezsmertnyi, said that the group members had decided to dismantle the fortifications in the area of the bridge, and to rebuild it. On July 23, a working group on the restoration of the bridge was created, whose members included representatives of the Ministry of Infrastructure, the Ukravtodor road agency, the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry for Occupied Territories and IDPs, the Ministry of Regional Development, the State Border Guard Service, Luhansk Military-Civil Administration, as well as design and engineering organizations. On July 29, the government's ad hoc group agreed a bridge rebuilding schedule.

Parties to the Trilateral Contact Group at Minsk peace talks on Donbas on July 31 agreed on demining of areas near the bridge in the village of Stanytsia Luhanska from August 1.