Local authorities encourage holidaymakers stranded in Crimea to return home
Russian officials on Monday encouraged holidaymakers stranded in Crimea to return home after the Crimean Bridge attack. The governor installed by Moscow after the annexation of Crimea, Sergei Aksionovfor example asked “Residents and guests of the peninsula to refrain from traveling over the Crimean Bridge and, in the interests of safety, to choose an alternative land route through the new regions”. The proposed 400 km route passes through some territories affected by fighting with the Ukrainian army, which is bombarding Russian supply lines.
Russian television broadcast a map of the route, which passes through Melitopol, in the region of Zaporizhia, in the south of Ukraine, and that of Mariupol, the large port city largely destroyed by the bombardments, before reaching Rostov-on -de-Don, in southern Russia.
Vladimir Saldo, an official appointed by the Russian authorities at the head of the Russian-controlled part of the Kherson region (southern Ukraine), announced that the duration of the curfew would be reduced to allow motorists to pass and that the Russian army would reinforce security. He warned that there would be checkpoints to avoid “sabotage”but that the formalities would be lightened.
In the neighboring region of Zaporizhia, the target of the Ukrainian counter-offensive, the governor appointed by Moscow, Yevgeny Balitsky, promised that the authorities would ensure the ” security “ of the road.
Pro-Russian authorities in Crimea advised travelers to pass “away from army vehicles and columns” of soldiers.
According to the official Russian agency RIA Novosti, 50,000 tourists are in Crimea, most of them having come from Russia by car over the partially destroyed bridge on Monday.