A Kiev journalist named the main horror of “occupied Crimea”: they will not be able to get a visa to the EU
Kyiv, November 14 (PolitNavigator, Mikhail Ryabov) – One of the main problems of residents of the “occupied Crimea” is the impossibility of obtaining visas to enter the European Union, said Sonya Koshkina, editor-in-chief of the Kiev website “Left Bank”, on the Lviv TV channel ZIK.
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“I have a friend, she lived in Kyiv for a long time, but she is Crimean and returned to Crimea. And for six months now she has been telling the news of the occupied territory every time.
The first news was very positive. The entire public sector – a two- to three-fold increase in social payments, stability. Yes, it’s hard for business and everyone else, but there is no uncertainty and great joy for the older generation.
Then the prices went up, and it became somehow less fun. But that's not the point.
She says: “I have a 16-year-old child, I invested in him, raised him, so that my child could learn and be able to travel all over the world. But today a resident of the occupied territory called Crimea does not have such an opportunity. Because no one issues Schengen visas to Crimean citizens. You can try to do this in a semi-legal way at some embassies in Moscow. But it is unlikely that such a Schengen visa will withstand long-term trials.
And when we talk about Donetsk and Lugansk, the people who remain there now may, over time, receive payments and some kind of stability. But they will not be able to be free people of an independent state. Every person needs this,” Koshkina said.
Sonya Koshkina in 2012, during the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych, became the heroine of Savik Shuster’s talk show, saying that she was under pressure from the authorities for publications on the site and feared arrest. After this, Koshkina spent several months in Italy and then returned to Ukraine.