Almost 22 thousand people moved from Crimea to mainland for two years of occupation
Almost 22 thousand people moved from Crimea to mainland Ukraine during the period of occupation. The Representative of the Ombudsman for observance of the rights of internally displaced persons Zhanna Lukyanenko said about that at the press conference in Kiev.
“As of yesterday (March 16, 2016 – the editor’s note), there are 21, 974 people displaced from Crimea. Unfortunately, we can’t say that this flow is over. We have 628 new internally displaced persons during the period from last November to the day before. This shows that it is impossible for many people to stay in the temporarily occupied territory,” Lukyanenko said.
According to the Ombudsman, the IDPs face with discriminatory procedures on the mainland – they are subjected to additional verification of documents submitted for registration at the new place of residence, their voting rights are restricted.
Expert: Russia can provide Crimea with electricity no sooner than in 2019
Russia will be able to solve the problem of the energy shortage in Crimea only in a few years by launching new units in the mainland nuclear power-stations and building new power transmission lines all over Crimea. Such a point of view was expressed by the head of the Center for Global Studies “Strategy XXI” Mikhail Gonchar at the conference “The militarization of occupied Crimea as a threat to international security”.
“Crimea is the region suffering from power shortages. Russia won’t be able to solve the problem with electricity for the region within a short time as it was announced – in December or in May. The south of Russia, where the electricity should be delivered to Crimea from, is experiencing the power shortage as well and can’t provide the other region. Therefore, Russia will be able to solve this issue only when two power units of the Rostov NPS are fully put into operation but it is possible (taking into account all of the testing procedures) no sooner than in 2019. But they need also to build the power transmission lines all over the south of Russia and Crimea, because the Crimean power system operated on the base of the system “North-South” and they need to switch it to the “East-West” system,” Gonchar said.
Advisor to the Minister: there are serious difficulties with sowing campaign in Crimea
This year’s sowing campaign in Crimea remains doubtful for three reasons: a lack of seed grains, problems with irrigation and a lack of agriculture equipment. The Advisor to the Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine Aleksandr Liev said about that at the press conference in Kiev, the department’s press service informs.
“Seed grains have been always delivered from mainland Ukraine to Crimea. Therefore, the problem with the lack of seeds is a very pressing issue now. Another problem for Crimea is 400 thousand hectares of irrigated lands. If these lands are planted, it will be possible only due to the remaining resources that can still be used for several years – there are still residual resources in the ground during the period of 50 years of the existence of the irrigation system,” Liev said and added that there also was a lack of equipment for harvesting.
According to the Advisor of the Minister, if the sowing campaign were carried out that year, it would be done only to preserve the jobs.
