Crimea in Darkness, Part 3

Crimea in Darkness, Part 3

As Crimea’s power supply slowly returns to normal, TOL looks at how people are coping with blackouts and shortages. Read Part 1 here and Part 2 here. by Julia Ivanova 21 December 2015

The trip from Kyiv to Kerch takes almost a day. First you go by train to the small station at Novooleksiivka, then take a taxi through the checkpoints at Chongar to Simferopol. From there, a bus travels 200 kilometers along a completely unlighted highway to the easternmost point of the peninsula – Kerch.

 

I ask the driver of the newish Opel taxi what happened to his business after Russia annexed Crimea. Passengers coming from mainland Ukraine, like me, are his main source of income now. The business belongs to a group of his family members and neighbors, all Crimean Tatars. “We use only foreign cars,” he says, indicating the vehicles around us as we wait in line at the passport checkpoint.

 

“Around 80 trains used to go through Novooleksiivka before the annexation. Now there are only three,” the driver continues.

 

Official border guards and customs agents check travelers at a border that does not officially exist – Ukraine, like almost every other country, does not recognize Russia’s annexation of Crimea almost two years ago. We also pass through a checkpoint manned by fighters from the Ukrainian nationalist Right Sector organization.

 

Right Sector members are cooperating with Crimean Tatar activists to keep up the blockade of goods and power. The blockade itself does not bother my taxi driver because he lives just outside of Crimea, in the Kherson region.

 

“Oh, that blockade. We’re in Ukraine; we have electricity. Let them block what they want. Actually, both sides are to blame,” he tells me.

 

The whole trip costs me about 2,500 rubles ($35). Before the annexation, the trip to Kerch would have cost half that much.

 

This is how Ukrainians get to Crimea. For Russian citizens, the rules are different – they have to obtain a special permit from the Ukrainian authorities if they want to enter Crimea. Otherwise, they are technically violating Ukrainian law.

The Kerch ferry is a vital link between the peninsula and mainland Russia.

 

Nevertheless, many Russians fly in to Simferopol or take a short ferry ride to Kerch. Since the blockade stopped all freight transport to Crimea, Kerch has become the only major gateway to the peninsula. Along with passengers, ferries across the Kerch Strait carry Russian food trucks, trains loaded with fuel, military trucks, humanitarian convoys, and now Ministry of Emergency Situations vehicles bringing generators. Ferries depart when full, and the trip takes less than half an hour, if the weather is good. Traffic jams often form, especially in the summer, when the line of tourist cars can stretch for many kilometers.

 

‘We Have Light!’

 

After the annexation in early 2014, the Russian government revived the old idea of bridging the strait so as to ease access to Crimea from Russia proper. The bridge will cross Tuzla, a thin, 3.5-square-kilometer sand island in the middle of the strait. In 2003, conflict flared around the island. Russia wanted to build a causeway to Tuzla and declared that the island belonged to it. But the situation calmed down, and the sides signed a new cooperation agreement. After the annexation, Russia set to work on the bridge, which at first will carry freight only. Now half-built, it stretches from the town of Taman to the island. While in Kerch, I saw a series of piles extending from Tuzla towards the Crimean city.

 

“Greetings from Kerch. We have light! Hold on, everything will be fine!” A young man’s voice greets Crimeans on a local radio station. In contrast to Simferopol and Sevastopol, the city was completely bereft of electricity for almost a week. Not until 27 November was the electricity supply partially restored. Electricity in other cities was rationed according to various schedules, to a few hours a day.

 

The Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations didn’t rush to help. Eventually, the ministry set up heating points – tents where people could charge mobile devices and drink hot tea – after the partial return of electricity, a couple of days before the first power line across the strait began supplying power on 2 December. 

By the time Russian authorities erected tents where people could warm up and recharge their phones, the first power line across the Kerch Strait was almost complete.


“Do you have light?” people ask each other when they meet, just as they do all over Crimea. Their main concern is to keep food fresh and protect electrical appliances from power surges.

 

Fresh Food – For a Price

 

There is enough food in Kerch, though. Although supermarket shelves for perishable goods such as milk, meat, and fish are empty, people can buy these products at the market. Not all supermarkets are open. The branch of the Ukrainian Silpo chain is in business, thanks to power generators, but other chain stores, such as Furshen and PUD, are closed.

 

Emma, a Crimean Tatar, sells meat at the Kerch market. While she is cutting and weighing it, she says that her son is studying in Dnipropetrovsk. He recently sent Emma a parcel with candles and food.

Many products have disappeared from supermarkets.

 

“I used to send those to him. Now it’s his turn,” she says, smiling.

 

She asks about the price of meat in Kyiv. About half the price in Kerch, it turns out. A woman at the meat counter, a Russian Crimean, agrees that prices are much higher here.

 

“I had boots sent to me from Kyiv, and they cost 5,000 rubles. But here in Kerch they sell for 15,000.”

 

There is also a small counter where you can buy “Nasha Ryaba” brand Ukrainian chicken. I ask the woman how her business has fared since the annexation.

 

“At first there was a small problem but then we solved it,” she says. “Look at your Poroshenko – he is also good. He promised to sell the business, but it hasn’t been sold yet.”

 

Tension between Russia and Ukraine is not the only cause of shortages. Since Russia began boycotting Turkish products in retaliation for the shooting down of its fighter jet over Syria, Turkish tangerines have disappeared from the market. The best-selling New Year’s fruit has been replaced by tangerines from Abkhazia, down the Black Sea coast, another territory that is recognized by virtually no one but Moscow.