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Russian officials on Monday encouraged holidaymakers stranded in Crimea to drive home through occupied Ukraine after a Ukrainian attack halted car traffic on the bridge linking the peninsula to Russia.
The attack killed two people and left their daughter injured, with President Vladimir Putin ordering authorities to repair the road and help tourists stranded in Crimea. Commercial flights to Moscow-annexed Crimea have been suspended after the start of the offensive in Ukraine, and most Russian tourists drive to Crimea through the bridge.
With traffic jams building up, officials proposed that tourists drive 400 kilometres (250 miles) through territories held by the Russian army, some seriously affected by fighting.
“I ask residents and guests of the peninsula to refrain from travel on the Crimea bridge and with the aim of safety choose an alternative overland route through the new regions,” said the Moscow-installed head of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov.
Russian state television aired a map of the route, which goes through occupied Melitopol to the port of Mariupol and ends in the southern Russian city of Rostov. It reminded people to take their passports with them.
Officials in occupied Ukraine said they would reduce curfew times to let tourists through and that the Russian army would tighten security. “Safety is ensured by the Russian army, it will be strengthened,” said Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-installed head of part of Ukraine’s southern Kherson region controlled by Moscow.
He said he had “minimised” the curfew to “let the transit transport through.” Saldo warned that there would be checkpoints that are in place to avoid “sabotage” but that formalities will be “reduced.”
– ‘Maximum convenience’ – In the neighbouring southeastern region of Zaporizhzhia, which is heavily targeted by Kyiv’s counter-offensive, the Moscow-installed governor Yevgeny Balitsky said officials will keep the route “safe.”
The restoration work for this vital route is expected to take some time. Due to the swollen rivers and nullahs, all major roads in Lahaul-Spiti are blocked, prompting the police and administration to advise people to stay indoors and avoid unnecessary travel. As a result, hundreds of people are currently stranded across various parts of the district.
“Road traffic will be in place with maximum convenience for our citizens through the new region,” Balitsky said. Crimea’s transport ministry published a checklist of what tourists should be aware of before the journey. “Give way to army vehicles and columns,” read one of the instructions. It also recommended that travellers bring cash with them and warned of police and military checkpoints along the way.
Russian television aired footage of some of the queues, with some tourists hesitant to take the route. “We are thinking about what to do,” one woman said. “To go back on holiday or go to Melitopol?”
Melitopol fell to Russian forces early in their offensive last year and has been regularly targeted by attacks. State news agency RIA Novosti said there were around 50,000 tourists in Crimea, and most of them came by car.
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