Contents tagged with crimea

  • Security Service of Ukraine releases names of 1,400 of its employees who defected

    The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) disclosed the names of 1,391 of its former employees who defected following the Ukrainian Revolution in the spring of 2014. The list was published on the SSU’s website on Saturday, RBC reported. Most of the SSU employees on the list were stationed in the Crimea prior to its annexation in March of 2014.

    The list was primarily comprised of individuals who served in the 3rd SSU Alpha Group, located in Simferopol in the Crimea, as well as employees of the Main …

  • Ukrainian Intelligence: Protest sentiments are growing in Crimea

    Protest sentiments are growing in Crimea, and clear proof of this is an emergence of pro-Ukrainian inscriptions and symbols in the annexed territory, as stated by a representative of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, Vadim Skibitskiy, Krym.Realii reported.“The problems with the electicity and water supply remain unresolved. Public-sector employees wages are declining. Meanwhile, the cost of living is increasing in the occupied Crimea. Such situation leads …

  • Aksyonov: Kerch Strait Bridge cannot be built without Ukraine's consent

    The head of Russian Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov, said that Ukraine will have to agree on the construction of the Kerch Strait Bridge, the Kommersant newspaper wrote.

    According to Aksyonov, this is due to "international legal norms according to which the Sea of Azov is a joint area of navigation.”

    "It is 'unlikely' that we'll get Ukraine's consent,” the official noted, adding that construction of an underwater tunnel would be cheaper and would not require consent from Kiev.

    Russia and Ukraine …

  • Aksyonov blames high prices in Crimea on 'speculators'

    The Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Russian Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov, explained that the high prices on medicines and food products in the Crimean peninsula are being driven by speculators. The prices are 30-40% higher than in adjacent Russian regions: Krasnodar and Rostov.

    “The prices on food products in specific areas are 40% higher than in the Krasnodar region. The price on pasta products is 46% higher. There are concerns of speculation in half of these cases, a parasitic …

  • Russian official: Ukraine is attempting to destabilize Crimea

    The Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation and the former head of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB), Nikolai Patrushev, spoke on Monday about the threat of destabilization in the Crimea. "The threat of destabilization of the political situation in the Crimean Federal District still remains. Primarily, this is due to the political challenges and the economic pressure from our western opponents," Patrushev said at a meeting in Yalta on Monday.

    The …

  • Ukrainian official: State losses caused by the annexation of Crimea amount to $38 billion

    The General Military Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine estimated the damage caused by the annexation of the Crimea to be 1 trillion hryvnia ($38 billion), as stated by the head of the agency, Anatolii Matios, at a briefing on March 21st, reported Krym.Realii.

    "According to the preliminary conclusions of the experts, the damage to the Ukrainian state caused by the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula by Russia amounts to more than 1 trillion hryvnia. This number takes onto account only the value of …

  • Human rights activists tell the UN of Russian-Crimean casualties in Syria

    At a meeting on the annexation of Crimea at the United Nations Security Council, human rights activists reported that several Crimeans who had served in the Russian army had been killed in Syria.

    This was said by the Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations, Vladimir Elchenko, during a press conference in New York after the UN meeting, Ukrinform reports.

    "Some of the sources during today's Arria-formula meeting and human rights experts reported on the recent return of a …

  • Crimean Tatar leader: Putin visited Crimea to 'reassure' the people

    The head of the Central Election Commission of the Crimean Tatars, Zahir Semdlyaev, believes that the purpose of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to the Crimea on March 18th was to “soothe the Crimean people who live in poor socio-economic conditions.”

    "He arrived to promise, to reassure local residents a little, to say that we must still be patient for about another hundred years, and then everything will be fine for sure. But in any case, they [the officials] are fine now, and about …

  • Poroshenko: Ukraine is pursuing the 'Geneva Plus' format for the de-occupation of Crimea

    Ukraine is holding negotiations in the Geneva Plus format for the de-occupation of Crimea with the international community involving participation from the EU, US and signatories from the Budapest Memorandum using the 'Geneva Plus' format.

    As the President of Ukraine stated on March 18 on his Facebook page, "over the last two years, there have been mass arrests and repressions in Crimea. The rights of the Crimean Tatars are cynically violated. The behavior of Crimean occupants is becoming more …

  • UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: The situation in Crimea remains critical

    During a UN Security Council meeting regarding compliance with human rights in the Crimea, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid al-Hussein mentioned that the situation in the Crimea remains critical and requires constant monitoring by the international community, as stated by the press service of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.

    The restriction of civil and political rights of Crimean residents, the lack of freedom of expression, and the atmosphere of intolerance are of particular concern …