I still own Ukrainian passport with Crimean registration though, so when the Crimean referendum was announced to be actually happening and the date was rushed to March 16, I made sure to book my airfare to Crimea.
I felt it’s my moral obligation to go there and vote for my country not to be separated, to vote for its peace and unity.
I booked an airfare to Crimea two weeks in advance and was very excited to go. My excitement started to fade away when earlier this week I checked the online timetable at Simferopol airport. I couldn’t believe my eyes. All flights were being cancelled one by one except flights going to and coming from Moscow.
When I called my airline company Turkish Airlines for an explanation of the situation, they confirmed that starting from March 12 up to referendum day on March 16, Crimea air space for them is closed. A call operator at the Simferopol airport, on the other hand, blamed it all on international airlines companies, saying that they are canceling flights on their own judgment. When asked to comment on the fact that a fully booked Turkish airlines plane was refused landing at the Simferopol airport, the operator hung up and didn’t answer the phone for the rest of the evening.
I wasn’t very keen on the idea of flying through Moscow as I’m boycotting all Russian goods and services, so Odesa seemed the best variant. Until I got there. No train or bus tickets in the next two days in Crimean direction. The lady at the ticket office said it has been like summer season ticket madness this whole week. Only I really doubt tourists are coming to Crimea this time.
Well, the only choice I had was to splurge on a taxi and there we went. Odessa, Mykolaiyv and Kherson were passed in high spirits with Ukrainian flags everywhere and big boards pledging to Ukrainian independence and unity.
The entrance to Crimea was far less charming as we had to pass two borders built up in a hurry. The first checkpoint was at the end of Kherson Oblast and had aUkrainian border patrol, whose guard was very polite and after checking our documents, wished us a safe journey. A lonely United Nations Commission for High Refugees car was staying on the side of the road. From our conversation with border police, we understood they had been trying to pass the second checkpoint and enter Crimean territory, but were refused.
Afterwards there is an approximately two-kilometer buffer zone needed to assure safety of checkpoint guards in case military action starts.
We didn’t see the Russian checkpoint right away as there was a huge line of all kinds of cars – trucks, buses, private cars. Cars were being checked much more thoroughly: armed men with masks on their faces and Russian flag ribbons on their arms open trunks and ask you to get out of the car.
After waiting around one hour to be checked, we finally passed the checkpoint and arrived in Crimean territory.
I was shocked to see real military camps on both sides of the road with huge amounts of military equipment. Everything is there: several outdoor kitchens, around 20 tents, military ambulance cars, trucks with covered carriages presumably carrying weapons. The ground around the camps is freshly dug and it looks like some military equipment is buried there.
On our road, to the awe of regular drivers, we met around 10 tanks and 10 trucks going in both directions with no license plates. They were carrying masked soldiers. The last thing they looked like were protectors. On the way to my destination of Kerch, I didn’t see a Ukrainian flag once.
Some cities installed Russian flags days before the referendum. Some had only Crimean flags on governmental buildings; some 10 hours and $300 later (yes, the journey to Crimea became longer and much more expensive due to the absence of tickets nowadays).
The overall atmosphere in Kerch is depressing. Huge lines to the ATM of every bank. People are storing food and water, preparing for the worst.
Lots of families are divided and not speaking to each other, with parents nostalgic about the USSR and supporting Russia, and the young generation striving to live in a free democratic country.
Kerch with its ancient 26-century old history is the first town you enter when crossing the Kerch Strait on the ferry coming from the Russian city of Taman.
People living close to the passage say they see ferries loaded with military equipment day and night and their children are asking if the war has started yet.
In search for proof I went to the ferry crossing myself. And there they were — 10 trucks with flammable written on the cisterns; some 15 newly arrived Russian soldiers were lined up and receiving a briefing.
The territory of the Kerch ferry station is also controlled by masked men with weapons, but the station works and regular people and passenger buses are being able to arrive and depart from Crimea freely. Next to the ferry station I noticed a long train consisting of at least 20 carriages with covered trucks and mobile kitchen trailers on them.
War is in the air.
Nataliia Protasova is a freelance writer and contributor to the Kyiv Post.
