The holiday season in Crimea, which was temporarily occupied by the Russians, has failed this year – the invaders claim that hotel prices have fallen by 30% compared to 2022 due to a drop in demand, but during August the average number of bookings was only 40%, meaning that this summer most rooms remained empty.
There were fewer tourists on the peninsula last year, and this year “tourism has disappeared,” Svitlana, a Russian woman who previously worked as a manager at a Crimean travel agency, and who left Crimea this summer and moved to the Russian city of St. Petersburg, told CNN.
“Recently, I went there again, hoping that everything would end soon and they would agree on something to end the conflict. But I stayed for four months and realized that nothing will end soon,” she shared.
The interlocutor noted that she did not like the time spent on the peninsula. “I am so tired of the constant military planes overhead, of the constant soldiers in the city, of the wounded, of these poor people who run away with frightened eyes, of the military equipment that almost crushed me several times,” said Svitlana.
The woman added that the occupants’ armored personnel carrier almost collided with her car.
Interesting news from Crimea – you need to know it today
The Russians seized the Ukrainian Crimea in 2014 and turned the resort peninsula into a military base. Kyiv decided to return Crimea under its control by military means after the Russian Federation carried out a full-scale invasion of Ukrainian soil.
In Crimea, explosions have been heard many times at important enemy facilities, in particular, at airfields, training grounds, and the Kerch bridge built by the Russians.
On the Independence Day of Ukraine – August 24, Ukrainian military intelligence reported that a special operation was carried out on the peninsula, as a result of which our flag was raised on its territory. On the 25th, there was information about the repeated landing of Ukrainian troops in Crimea.