Crimea Under Occupation

The Maidan Foreign Affairs Monitoring Group and BSNews continue to publish the monthly monitoring results of violations by Ukrainian and international maritime vessels of the sanctions against the occupied Crimea.

In the course of a journalistic investigation, the monitoring group of the Maidan of Foreign Affairs and the BSNews has revealed a carefully concealed by the Russian Federation in the fear of sanctions passenger liner scheduled for the cruise route Sochi - (Novorossiysk?) - Yalta - Sevastopol - Istanbul - Sochi. In the interest of the security of information sources, the methodology and the course of the journalistic investigation are not disclosed.

The monitoring group of the BSNews and the Maidan of Foreign Affairs has summed up the results of the daily monitoring of violations of the sanctions and the occupied territories regime for December 2016.

The BSNews and Maidan of Foreign Affairs monitoring group has summed up the illegal flights of the Russian airlines to the occupied Crimea in January 2017.

The BSNews and Maidan of Foreign Affairs monitoring group has compared the number of illegal flights by the Russian airlines to the occupied Crimea in February 2017 with that in the corresponding months of 2015 and 2016.

The joint BSNews and Maidan of Foreign Affairs monitoring group has summed up the results of the daily monitoring of violations of sanctions and the regime of the occupied territory in the Crimea in October-November 2016.

The Maidan Foreign Affairs and BSNews monitoring Group has summed up the results of the daily monitoring of the violations of the sanctions against the occupied Crimea and the occupied territory regime for January 2017.

The BSNews and Maidan of Foreign Affairs monitoring group has compared the number of illegal flights by the Russian airlines to the occupied Crimea in October-November 2016 with that in the corresponding months of 2014 and 2015.

The "Maidan of Foreign Affairs" and BSNews monitoring group has conducted a special investigation of the vessel offenders related to Turkey. According to the results of the special investigation, of the 276 vessels-offenders that have called at the ports of Crimea between the beginning of the annexation on March 18, 2014 and December 1, 2016, 68 vessels operating under different flags are related Turkey according to the registration of the ship owner and/or operator. That represents 24.6% of the total quantity.

The monitoring group of the Maidan of Foreign Affairs and BSNews present to our readers the "black list", or rather, the complete database of ships that in violation of the Ukrainian legislation and the international sanctions, docked at the ports of the occupied Crimea since its annexation, i.e. from March 18, 2014 to August 15, 2016.

According to Maidan of Foreign Affairs, more than 216 foreign trade vessels entered the occupied seaports of Crimea since the occupation. Russia is the top violator of the sanctions regime on this annexed territory of Ukraine: 101 Russian vessels account for 46.75% of the total number of violators. Russia is followed by Turkey with 52 vessels or 24.14%, Greece with 28 vessels or 13%. Overall, vessels registered in these three states that have entered Crimea since the time of annexation make 83.8% of the total number.

Bohdan Yaremenko, Chairman of the Maidan of Foreign Affairs, on the Turkish President’s official visit to Ukraine. We hear that next week Turkish President, Recep Erdogan, will visit Ukraine. The event is worth to be thoroughly analyzed. But before, there is one small but significant caveat. In a month, on April 24, the world or at least a big and very important for Ukraine part of it, will honor the memory of the victims of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire that took place 100 years ago.

Andriy KLYMENKO, Maidan of Foreign Affairs (Kyiv), BSNews. Turkey is negotiating the resumption of the Zonguldak-Yevpatoriya ferry line with the authorities of the occupied Crimea. A trial ferry trip and statements on it by the Yevpatoriya seaport officials once again confirm the fact that Turkey is no longer a friend to Ukraine or Crimean Tatars. How will the Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Ministry respond to this?

Andriy KLYMENKO, Olha KORBUT, Maidan of Foreign Affairs, BSNews, Yalta-Kyiv. Maidan of Foreign Affairs and BSNews monitoring group publishes the blacklist of vessels (3rd edition) that entered Crimean seaports after Crimea was occupied and annexed by Russia. The list currently includes 91 vessels, with 38 Russian, 24 Turkish and 14 Greek vessels.

Andriy KLYMENKO, Head of Supervisory Board, Maidan of FA, BSNews Chief Editor, Yalta-Kyiv. It’s amazing: just three months ago, when the Kremlin signed a shocking act of annexation, for us in Crimea it seemed like it would remain that way for many, many years. Today, despite the increasingly brutal and unpredictable aggression of the Russian Federation in Donbas, it appears that it will happen much faster. Time is accelerated here now. A day is a month. And sometimes even more.