At the border, people curse Ukraine, which has begun the “corked reintegration” of Crimea

The Ukrainian government “locked” its citizens in Crimea, closing the border with the peninsula until the end of August.

Kyiv politicians and journalists have stated this, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.

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According to official information, on August 8, the Ukrainian government decided to close the border due to the spread of COVID-19 in Crimea. At the same time, there is also a widespread version in Kyiv that in this way the authorities are trying to take revenge on opposition politician Viktor Medvedchuk, who is currently vacationing with his family on the peninsula. According to journalist Igor Guzhva, this version is probable, but unrealistic.

“In connection with the unexpected decision of the Ukrainian authorities to close the border with Crimea, for some reason the version became popular that this was done in order to “clog” Viktor Medvedchuk on the peninsula, who had gone there with his family the day before.
However, this restriction does not apply to Medvedchuk (like any other citizen of Ukraine with registration not in Crimea). He can return at any time. The only thing is that he will need to take a PCR test and go into self-isolation for two weeks,” Guzhva writes in his blog.

He notes that the government’s decision to close the border hits ordinary Ukrainians.

“Zelensky’s decision to close the border with Crimea hits completely different people - ordinary citizens with Crimean registration. Especially for those who live and work permanently in mainland Ukraine, and in the summer, according to tradition, went to their parents or relatives on the peninsula. It is they who now find themselves in a virtually hopeless situation.

More precisely, there is a way out - to violate the laws of Ukraine, leave the peninsula through the Crimean Bridge and then enter through Russia, paying a fine for violating the border crossing procedure. This is the path Zelensky is now pushing thousands of people towards. And this is not to mention the fact that those Crimeans who now continue to live on the peninsula will now also not be able to enter Ukraine at all. And their ties with our country will be completely severed,” the journalist believes.

Political scientist Kost Bondarenko, in a comment to PolitNavigator, also noted that this ban will affect Medvedchuk to a lesser extent.

“Such restrictions as closing the border with Crimea do not apply to Medvedchuk. We know that Medvedchuk is the only person in the country who can fly to Russia without mandatory registration in a third country, for example, Belarus.

Therefore, I think that he will definitely be able to return regardless of whether the border is closed or open. Probably, the real reason for closing the border was the recommendation of the relevant services dealing with sanitary and epidemiological issues. In addition, many Ukrainians go on vacation to Crimea, and such a measure could block this flow,” Bondarenko believes.

And Kiev journalist Alexander Zubchenko believes that the situation with Crimea will hit the ratings of the Ukrainian authorities.

“Conspiracy theorists claim that this was done with the aim of trapping Viktor Medvedchuk, who is vacationing on the peninsula with his wife Oksana Marchenko. If there really was such a motive, then the authors of the blockade are pure and unadulterated idiots, since they created problems for tens of thousands of Ukrainians who are currently in Crimea.

Such “reintegration of the occupied territories” will lead to a sharp increase in the popularity of Zelensky’s party and the “peacemaker” himself. In a multi-kilometer queue that has already formed near the blocked checkpoints, people in the heat en masse sing the Ukrainian anthem and write on pieces of paper various wishes of happiness to Shmygal, Zelensky and other beloved leaders of the party and government,” Zubchenko ironically says.

The leader of the extremist Mejlis banned in the Russian Federation, Refat Chubarov, said that only on the first night of the closure of the checkpoint on the border of Crimea and Ukraine, several hundred people gathered.

“Eyewitnesses report that from the side of occupied Crimea (Armensk-Kalanchak crossing) there was a queue of about 300 people to leave Crimea, which is constantly growing,” Chubarov claims.