Russian tourists are continuing to take their summer holidays in Crimea despite persistent Ukrainian drone attacks, a state of emergency, fuel shortages and power outages on the annexed Black Sea peninsula.
While visitor traffic has fallen by about a third this season, there were 150,000 to 200,000 Russian tourists in Crimea as of late June, according to surveys and estimates by the Association of Tour Operators of Russia.
The vast majority travelled by car, even as fuel purchases on the peninsula are subject to sharp restrictions with motorists limited to 20 litres per vehicle. Fewer than 100 filling stations are operating while petrol prices have surged about 80% recently to as much as 154 ruble (RM8.19) a litre, according to data from Russia’s Federal Statistics Service.
Ukraine has stepped up attacks on Crimea in recent months, aiming to cut off the peninsula that President Vladimir Putin seized in 2014. Kyiv’s forces struck a series of bridges in occupied southern Ukraine used by Russia’s military for logistics supplies to Crimea, and have also targeted ferries, fuel depots and electricity infrastructure.
That has left road and rail links across the Kerch Bridge connecting Russia and Crimea as the main route in and out of the peninsula. Train services are often delayed when Ukrainian attacks force temporary closures of the bridge that Putin ordered to be built following the annexation.
Russia’s working on a new network to supply fuel to Crimea that will be “very difficult” for Ukraine to reach, Putin said recently at a meeting of the All-Russia People’s Front, without elaborating, according to the Interfax news service.
Earlier this month, Robert Brovdi, the commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, said its drones struck the main point in Crimea for electricity supply from Russia as well as 50 power plants.
Those attacks have led to widespread power and water outages across northern and central parts of the peninsula, according to the Russian-installed authorities. Only hospitals and other critical infrastructure continue to operate normally.
So far, there have been no reported widespread shortages of food or other essential consumer goods, according to Russian media.
Tourists can bring fuel with them or fill up before crossing the Kerch Bridge and avoid using their cars during their stay in order to have enough petrol for the return trip, Sergey Romashkin, vice president of the tour operators association told Kommersant newspaper.
Some residents, in turn, are switching to Chinese electric vehicles, helped by the peninsula’s extensive charging network.
The tourism season has continued despite a state of emergency declared in June by the Russia-appointed Governor of Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov. New reservations have slowed, though travel companies haven’t reported any mass cancellation of bookings, according to the tour operators’ association.
That’s as power outages also mean the loss of water supply, air conditioning, internet access and elevators at hotels that lack generators or fuel to operate them.
Vasily, a 34-year-old IT worker from Russia’s Krasnodar, said he’s been staying at the resort city of Yalta on Crimea’s southeastern coast for a month and plans to remain there until mid August.
Mobile Internet is unavailable overnight, while power and water outages have become part of daily life, with residents charging devices whenever electricity returns and storing water in buckets, he said, asking not to disclose his surname because he works for a state-owned company and isn’t authorised to speak to international media.
The Russian government, which has yet to resolve the blackouts and fuel shortages, announced that Crimea will receive more than 3.7 billion ruble (RM200mil) in aid, with the city of Sevastopol getting an additional 584.5 million ruble (RM31.1mil).
“The government will provide financial support to tourism companies in Crimea and Sevastopol that have found themselves in a difficult situation due to a decline in tourist traffic caused by the actions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” the government said in a statement. – Bloomberg
