Crimean Peninsula residents are facing fuel shortages, power cuts and payment problems as Ukrainian attacks disrupt daily life across Crimea. Most shops and restaurants must close no later than nine in the evening, street events have been cancelled until further notice, and social networks have been flooded with images of long lines at petrol stations in recent weeks.
An increasing number of ATMs on the peninsula are out of service, cards cannot be used in most shops except Yabloko supermarkets, and many people can no longer get fuel even on the black market. A woman from Sevastopol described difficulty obtaining certain foodstuffs because many shops were closed, while trolleybuses in Crimea were not running because of extensive power cuts.
Sevastopol and Simferopol restrictions
Crimean authorities restricted other forms of public transport, including buses, because of the fuel shortage. Most shops that are open operate only thanks to generators and sell mainly non-perishable products, and the Crimean authorities restricted the sale of some basic foodstuffs in the first half of June.
A sign from Simferopol said a single customer could buy at most three kilos of sugar. Local sources said there was still enough rice and wheat on the peninsula, which leaves Residents of Crimea dealing with shortages in some staples without facing a broader food collapse.
Ondřej Soukup on Crimea
Ondřej Soukup said, "Crimea has become a central symbol of Putin’s effort to right the ‘wrongs’ that allegedly occurred after the collapse of the Soviet Union". He also said, "For local residents this is an enormous tragedy" as Crimea faces increasingly frequent power outages and related loss of water.
Vladimir Putin annexed Crimea in 2014, and the article says that move lifted his domestic popularity to almost 90 percent. Russian repression makes it difficult to determine exactly how far the current disruption is reaching, but the visible signs are already in shops, on buses and at cash machines.
Crimea in recent weeks
The immediate question is how long fuel, power and transport limits will persist on the peninsula. The most recent signs point to a continuing squeeze on daily commerce in Crimea and Sevastopol, with cards failing in most stores, generators keeping some shops open, and public transport running under restriction.
