Airlines and marine companies will be fined, and administrative measures will be applied against them, if they visit seaports and airports in temporarily occupied Crimea under foreign flags, the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine has said.
“The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine informed foreign states on the consequences of entering ports in temporarily occupied Crimea under a foreign flag,” Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Yevhen Perebyinis said at a briefing on Dec.17.
Perebyinis said that from late July to Dec. 10, 2014 the State Inspectorate of Ukraine for Safety at Marine and River Transport registered 99 cases of vessels entering Crimean ports under foreign flags. In particular, 48 vessels flew a Russian flag, four – Moldovan, two – Italian, two – Cypriot, one – Portuguese, one Maltese, and other ships under flags of other states.
“No infringement is left without the attention of the state power agencies of Ukraine,” he said.
As of December 10, 2014, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine has opened over 69 criminal cases.
Perebyinis said that the Infrastructure Ministry, and the Foreign Ministry of Ukraine, officially informed international organizations of the ban on visiting temporarily occupied Crimea.
In civil aviation, Ukraine can apply fines, restrict flights, and cancel registration certificates for airfields and helicopter pads as measures against regulation violators.
A total of 2,193 proscriptions worth some UAH 300 million, which violators of airline regulations are to pay to the Ukrainian state budget, were issued.
