The occupation government in Crimea intends to ask Russian administration to initiate negotiations with Ukraine concerning water supply from Dnipro river to the peninsula. Such initiative was voiced by Georgy Muradov, “Crimea’s Vice Prime Minister”, informs Russian TASS.
«We would like to explore the option of the negotiation process with the Ukrainian side regarding supplying our water to Crimea. We are not talking about Dnipro river that belongs to Ukraine, we mean to supply our water to from the Russian Federation», he said.
According to Muradov, the initiation of the negotiation process is necessary in order to solve many problems in the Northern Crimea.
Anton Korinevich, Permanent Representative in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, in his turn, responded on his Facebook page that there are no legal grounds for such demands.
“1. Crimea is a territory of Ukraine. Crimea is not a territory of the RF. Therefore, RF cannot raise questions that concern the domestic politics of Ukraine, including Crimea. Questions concerning Crimea can be raised only by the sovereign state, that is Ukraine.
2. Dnipro river does not pass Crimea. Ukraine did not dam a river, it stopped the work of the technological facility that is based on its territory. Ukraine has a legal right to do so.
3. By any reckoning, there is enough water in Crimea to satisfy people’s needs. It is the occupying state that has to take responsibility to provide all necessary recourses to the occupied territory” – he noted.
Refat Chubarov, the Head of the Mejlis, also commented on this initiative.
“There can be no conversation whatsoever, even hypothetical, about the possibility to resume water, electricity, or railway services between the mainland Ukraine and Crimea, without a complete and unequivocal de-occupation of Crimea and restoration of state sovereignty of Ukraine over the Crimea peninsula and the adjacent waters of Black and Azov sea” – he pointed out.
Before the occupation of Crimea, the North Crimean Canal provided 85% of tap water to the peninsula. Since May 2014, the supply has been terminated.