ARABAT SPIT, KHERSON OBLAST, Ukraine - The once-popular summer resort Arabat Spit now looks deserted and menacing. Instead of tourists, Ukrainian and Russian soldiers are walking on its beaches.
Now Arabat Spit, a thin 112-kilometer piece of land between Syvash salt lake and Azov Sea, has become a border line between Ukraine and the northeastern shores of Crimea, now under Russia’s control.
The border is closed from the Ukrainian side for everyone except military personnel and a few local residents who work at the natural gas distribution station.
This station itself is currently under total control of Russian soldiers as the Crimean authorities announced nationalization of its owner – Chornomornaftogaz, a subsidiary of the Ukrainian state-run oil and gas giant Naftogaz. The extraction and distribution center includes two drilling rigs in the Azov Sea and one on shore.
The local residents remember March 15, when some 50 Russian marines landed from two helicopters at the land of sanatoriums on the Ukrainian side and walked several kilometers along the spit to capture the gas station. More Russian marines landed later near the station, increasing the total number of invaders to about 100 people.
The Ukrainian checkpoint with only a half-dozen officers could do nothing more than get into their armored troop carriers and drive away.
“In fact, they had nothing else to do under such circumstances,” said a security officer for a local children’s sanatorium, who refused to be identified publicyl for fear of retribution from his bosses. “The Russian had a task to capture a strategic object, which they successfully did.”
Later on March 15, dozens of Ukrainian soldiers came to the spot with their military vehicles and took a defensive position in front of the Russians. Now the Ukrainians are digging the trenches and say situation is under control. Ukrainian prosecution opened a criminal case on illegal seizure of gas distribution station.
At the same time, the residents of the nearby Strilkove village, who work at the gas distribution station, say that the Russians are day-by-day dismantling the station’s drilling rig. This equipment, worth about Hr 400 million, was installed last summer to facilitate gas extraction.
Two sea gas extraction rigs from the shore are also of interest to the Russians. The security guard said that Russian ships were permanently seen around the drills until the last days, when drifting ice complicated movement by sea.
“I don’t understand why the Ukrainian authorities don’t negotiate capture of all this property,” Oleksiy added.
The local Strilkove gas field gives over 30,000 cubic meters of gas per 24 hours and totally covers the needs of residents of Arabat Spit and also Crimean city of Dzhankoy. Developed since the 1970s, it became the first Ukrainian gas field where the gas has been extracted both on the land and sea.
But now, Ukraine can lose it.
On March 26, Crimean parliament speaker Vladimir Konstantinov announced that the nationalization of Chornomornaftogaz is completed. On March 16, Kommersant daily cited deputy prime minister of Crimea Rustam Temorgaliyev who said that the Crimean authorities were planning to sell Chornomornaftogaz. Gazprom, Russian gas monopoly, is seen as the only bidder.
However, energy analysts with whom the Kyiv Post spoke, assume that Gazprom will ultimately have to pay for the Chornomornaftogaz property. Otherwise, Naftogaz may refuse to repay debts to the Russian side.
Kyiv Post staff writer Oksana Grytsenko can be reached at [email protected]
