MOSCOW — Crimean Tatars, angered by Russia’s annexation of the Black Sea peninsula, said
Monday that a blockade of food deliveries to Crimea from Ukraine would continue indefinitely.
Refat Chubarov, a Crimean Tatar leader who was
banned from the peninsula by Russia after its March 2014 annexation, said no trucks had been allowed through border
crossings after barricades went up on Sunday.
“Yesterday the movement of freight vehicles on
all roads leading to the peninsula was halted,” Mr. Chubarov was quoted as
saying by the Unian news agency of Ukraine.
Also on Monday, Germany strongly warned against
elections planned by Moscow-backed separatists in the breakaway region of
southeastern Ukraine and urged all parties in the Ukrainian conflict to fulfill
the progress promised at a Sept. 12 meeting of the foreign ministers of
Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine.
“I strongly urge Kiev and Moscow not, right now,
to once again jeopardize the cease-fire in eastern Ukraine,” Frank-Walter
Steinmeier, the German foreign minister, said in a statement. “The silence of
the guns is still not really secured, and the conflict can escalate again
militarily.”
A shaky truce has held since Sept. 1, and
another attempt to solidify it with an agreement on weapons withdrawal was due
to take place on Tuesday.
Sawsan Chebli, a spokeswoman for the German
Foreign Ministry, said Berlin had also seen “with great concern” that the
separatists were pushing ahead with plans for elections. She said the elections
would be a “serious danger” to the Minsk accord that was reached by leaders of
the four countries in February but never fully implemented.
“We expect Russia to use its influence over the
separatists to ensure these elections do not take place,” Ms. Chebli said at a
regular government news conference.
Crimea is connected to the mainland by a narrow
strip of land with just one main highway, so severing that link would effectively
halt all traffic. More than 230 vehicles had been stopped, Mr. Chubarov said.
In the past, there was speculation that Russia
might push its forces deeper into Ukraine, past the southern port of Mariupol,
in order to secure a land route to Crimea from Russia. But such a move would
undoubtedly lead to far more Western sanctions.
The immediate effect of the Tatar blockade was
not clear. Before the annexation, most people and goods going to Crimea flowed
through Ukraine, but train traffic has been stopped for some time and extensive
customs searches have hindered the transport of goods.
Sergei Aksyonov, the prime minister of Crimea
appointed by Russia, said Monday that the blockade would have little effect, as
only about 5 percent of the goods consumed in Crimea came through Ukraine.
“The trade blockade of Crimea begun by Ukrainian
activists with the support of a number of Kiev politicians will not affect food
supplies in the region,” he told the Russian state-run Rossiya 24 satellite
television channel. “Crimea will not notice this.”
Most Russian goods are transported by large
ferries across the Sea of Azov and through the Kerch Strait, but bad weather
can halt service despite significant improvements during the last year.
Russian television focused much of its attention
on the fact that roadblocks were being manned with the help of members of Right
Sector, a Ukrainian nationalist organization banned in Russia, where the news
media frequently portray it as neo-fascist.
The Tatars, who were deported from Crimea into
exile in Central Asia during World War II, have complained about continued
discrimination by the new Russian rulers.
The main independent Tatar television station
was shut down this year, and although Tatar is one of the official languages in
the Constitution, it is seldom used. About 300,000 of the peninsula’s two
million people are Tatar.
Mr. Chubarov is chairman of the Mejlis of the
Crimean Tatar People, an assembly that has been suspended, and a member of the
Ukrainian president’s faction in the country’s Parliament.
Mustafa Dzhemilev, another Crimean Tatar leader,
who spent 15 years as a Soviet political prisoner and is now also banned from
the peninsula, told the German news website Deutsche Welle that the activists
were prepared to block the road for months.
The goal is “for the occupiers to leave our
territory,” he said, adding that they would also insist that Kiev cut
electricity to Crimea.
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