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| - Hundreds of Hasidic Jewish pilgrims, who had massed along the Belarusian border attempting to enter Ukraine, began leaving Friday after Kiev upheld an entry ban on foreigners due to an increase in coronavirus infections. "There are about 700 pilgrims in front of the Ukrainian checkpoint," compared to around 1,000 Thursday, Ukrainian border guard spokesman Andriy Demchenko told AFP. Belarusian Border Committee representative Anton Bychkovskiy confirmed that the numbers "were on the decline". Tens of thousands of Hasidic Jews travel to the central Ukrainian city of Uman every Jewish New Year -- which starts Friday and will last until Sunday this year -- to visit the tomb of Rabbi Nahman, the founder of the Breslov Hasidic movement. The believers -- mainly Israeli, but also American and French -- departed for Uman this year even though both the Ukrainian and Israeli governments last month urged them not to travel because of the pandemic. The standoff on the border aggravated already strained ties between Kiev and Minsk, which have traded barbs over disputed presidential elections in Belarus last month. Kiev closed its borders for most of the month of September citing a growing number of coronavirus infections, but the pilgrims attempted to bypass the restrictions by travelling through Belarus. Ukraine has reported more than 169,000 cases of coronavirus and 3,468 fatalities. vk-dg/jbr/spm
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