Ukraine may block traffic to the peninsula on May 10
Moscow - Simferopol, May 08 (Navigator, Mikhail Shtamm) – On May 10, the law "on temporarily occupied territory" will come into effect, requiring special permits to enter Crimea. The ban will affect passenger trains, which, according to Kommersant sources, will be turned around as they approach Crimea. Neither Russia nor Ukraine can explain what passengers should do.
Subscribe to Navigator Crimea news on Facebook or VKontakte
The corporate channel of Russian Railways OJSC “RZD TV” reported that from May 10, it will be difficult for Russian citizens “due to the tightening of train access” to get to Ukraine. “Getting into this country will be problematic from May 10; local authorities promise to tighten the conditions for allowing trains to enter their territory,” the TV channel reported. But JSC Russian Railways explained that the wording of “RZD TV” was “incorrect”: it was exclusively about trains traveling through Ukraine to Crimea.
The newspaper’s sources in Russia and Ukraine explain that “not a single vehicle, train or bus will be able to enter Crimea from the territory of Ukraine if its passengers do not have special permits.” “Thus, any train, be it a train of JSC Russian Railways or Ukrzaliznitsa, will not be able to enter Crimea through Ukraine; it will not be allowed through a special point, since the train crew most likely will not have special permits,” explains one of the publication's interlocutors.
One of the newspaper’s sources clarifies that the ban on travel to Crimea through Ukraine “applies to everyone, there are no exceptions for Ukrainian citizens.” The interlocutor notes that a train traveling, for example, from Moscow to Simferopol, “will be able to enter the territory of Ukraine without problems after passing customs control,” but then at the approaches to Crimea “it will be stopped and sent back to Russia.” “Most likely, the stop will occur at some large station closest to Crimea, where it is possible to turn around the locomotive, for example in Melitopol, although in principle this could happen earlier, for example at the Shevchenkovo station,” the source believes.
Ukraine may block traffic to the peninsula on May 10.