Alexey Ponomarev
The Ukrainian MFA advised Russia to send humanitarian aid to the Crimea instead of Lugansk and Donetsk Oblasts. This is how Ukrainian diplomats responded to the note their Russian colleagues sent earlier.
Valeriya Dubarova, May 29th
Mourning continues in Volyn Oblast for the soldiers fallen during the ATO. At the polygon near Rivne, a vigil was held on Monday, and the men were buried the next day. The youngest of the fallen was 18 years of age.
The so-called acting head of the Crimea Sergey Aksionov admitted that the tourist flow to the peninsula is much lower than “the optimal level.” The head of the occupational government of the Crimea reported this to the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev. According to Aksionov, the Crimea occupied by Russia, can accept 16-20 thousand tourists daily on various modes of transportation, while the optimal tourist flow has to be several times bigger than the current one.
“We have enough power to accept arrivals so far, between 16 and 20 thousand passengers daily, or at least twice as much if necessary,” reported Aksionov to the Moscow protectors.
According to the head of the Crimean separatists, the issue of logistics and delivery of tourists to the peninsula is “a major one,” as the main mode of transportation for the arrival of the holidaymakers is the railway, using which up to 80% of the tourists used to come – is, as he says, cut off by the Ukrainian side, which cannot agree on routes.
Aksionov also admitted that the holiday bases are not ready to admit tourists. “The nationalised state medical centres are not presented as a ready product, in order to salvage the Crimea’s reputation and not to deceive the tourists,” concluded the main Crimean separatist. On his part, the Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev promised yet once more that the Moscow government will be seeking solutions to the problem of tourist delivery. “We have to search for additional possibilities to deliver the holidaymakers by railway, sea and aviation tranport,” noted Medvedev.
Source: http://glavcom.ua/news/208650.html
Translated by Mariya Shcherbinina
by Yuriy Marchenko, May 26th, 2014
The author of this material is a soldier of the Ukrainian army who signed up as a volunteer after the Crimean events began. He asked not to indicate his name, in order to have the opportunity to honesty talk about how the service looks from the inside. Platfor.ma is publishing the volunteer’s direct speech.
I am a solider. On March 1st, when our extraordinarily brotherly friends burst rushed to spread good and flourishing to the humiliated Russian-speakers, I ran to the military commissariat and signed up as a volunteer. On May 17th I got the call, on the 18th I became a soldier. The first wave – they prepared mobilisation. It was ready and began on May 15th. Formed a group at the command point myself, went with it myself, and started serving in the Kyiv battalion together with it.
May 26th, 2014 | 13:56
This is how the confectionary department of one of the food stores looks like. The situation is slightly better in others – there are several kinds of sweets…
Two months have passed since the moment when the Crimea was annexed. “Sobering” is hitting many Crimeans already, however, it should be noted, not all. There are still those who are ready to live with an empty wallet and fridge, but also to “die in Russia.”
Meanwhile it is difficult to find a really positive side to current everyday life in the Crimea. Let’s speak of the most profane – the prices on food and goods of primary importance.
The Crimeans are lamenting the empty shelves in shops and supermarkets, the ridiculously high prices – meat for 100 UAH on average, buckwheat almost for 20 UAH, bread which has become 50% more expensive… This is Russian reality in the Crimea today.
On Friday, May 25, secondary schools throughout Ukraine, including Crimea, were holding ceremonies marking the official end of the school year. Students graduating from the Lesya Ukrainka Gymnasium No. 5 in Sevastopol, along with their teachers, wore vyshyvankas (Ukrainian embroidered shirts) to school as a sign of protest against Russian occupation of the peninsula.
The Government of Ukraine expresses its deep indignation at the actions of the occupation administration, which has forcefully banned the leader of Crimean Tatar people Mustafa Dzhemilev’s entry to Crimea. By barring the veteran fighter for the rights and freedoms of the Crimean Tatar people from entering his homeland, the Russian side once again trampled the cornerstone principles of international law and clearly showed the world what hides beneath their cynical ‘concern’ for the right of all people to self-determination. This looks especially disgusting on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the tragedy of the Crimean Tatars—the deportation of these people, which was accompanied by the loss of tens of thousands of people. Continue reading
“Candidates for vacancy must be of Slavic nationality.” Announcements such as this have become an everyday sight in the occupied Crimea. Just recently, a number of my acquaintances have lost their jobs at local government bodies (village and town councils), because they don’t pass muster based on ethnic origin. No, this has nothing to do with personnel optimization. They were told to their faces that they are being fired on the basis of national origin.
Russia’s Central Bank has terminated the operation of branch offices of four Ukrainian banks – PrivatBank, All-Ukrainian Stock Bank, Kyivan Rus Bank, and ImexBank – on the territory of Crimea and Sevastopol. A press release issued by the Central Bank cites the banks’ failure to meet their obligations before account holders as the reason behind this action. Previously, the Russian Central Bank has threatened the Crimea-based Ukrainian banks with conservatorship over failure to meet their obligations.
According to an announcement posted on the official website of Russia’s Ministry of Education and Science, Crimean residents who wish to
have the validity of their diplomas recognized will need to go through a recognition procedure, sending an application with a package of documents confirming their completion of education to the Service for Educational Supervision. This requirement applies only to those residents who received their diplomas in 1992-2000.
Euromaidan PR 