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Ukrainian activists blockade Crimea
A group of Ukrainian activists blocked all roads and a railroad leading to the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine. Border checkpoints have also been blocked, and no delivery trucks or trains are allowed to pass into the territory of Crimea. Private cars and pedestrians are allowed to pass.
The activists have called the event “the commercial blockade of Crimea.” Crimean Tatar activists who live in Ukraine are participating in the blockade, as well as patriotic organizations based in Kherson region, the Ukrainian region bordering Crimea. The Ukrainian ultranationalist group Right Sector (banned in Russia as an extremist organization) has also expressed its support for the initiative.
The police have not yet interfered. The blockade has caused a lot of traffic on Ukrainian roads in the region bordering Crimea. According to Ukrainian media reports, a total of 200 delivery trucks are stuck at the three checkpoints on the border with Crimea, and 18 trucks have turned away to go back to Ukraine.
The head of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis (or “council”) Refat Chubarov told reporters that the blockade would be carried out in three stages: “The initiative has begun. It is in its first stage. There will be a second and third stage. As for the duration and form, we will consult with everyone who has come here, with the headquarters, with representatives of the Mejlis.”
The Crimean leadership said that a commercial blockade from Ukraine would not significantly affect Crimea. The Russian news agency TASS reported that the head of Crimea, Sergey Aksenov, announced that within the next two weeks, all Ukrainian products currently sold in Crimea will be replaced by Russian or local products.
The official report about the [blockade] initiative at the border with Crimea: 83 trucks are standing at [border checkpoint] Kalanchak, 114 are at [border checkpoint] Chaplynka. 18 trucks have left voluntarily.
- Crimea seceded from Ukraine and was annexed by Russia in 2014 after a controversial referendum. Ukraine, along with most of the world, does not recognition Russia's acquisition of Crimea.
- Crimean Tatars identify as a Muslim, Turkic ethnic group. Many Crimean Tatars were against Russia’s annexation of Crimea and protested against the referendum that led to Moscow's annexation. Many Crimean Tatars have left Crimea since it seceded from Ukraine.