The trial on damage from the water blockade of Crimea will be held behind closed doors

Information provided by the Ministry of Housing and Communal Services of Crimea was added to the materials of the civil case, including information about the emergence of technical difficulties due to a shortage of water resources, the consequences of stopping the supply of fresh water to ensure drinking water supply to consumers in the republic.

About Crimea’s claims against Ukraine

Previously, enterprises of the Republic of Crimea filed several claims to the regional arbitration court against the Ukrainian authorities for compensation for damage caused by the water blockade of the peninsula. The amount of claims amounts to more than 2.5 trillion rubles. Then regional authorities filed and won a lawsuit against the energy blockade in the amount of more than 3.15 trillion rubles. The defendants are the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine and the national energy company Ukrenergo. In addition, the authorities of the Republic of Crimea will calculate the amount of damage and lost profits during their stay in Ukraine and will also file a corresponding claim. As Vladimir Konstantinov, Chairman of the State Council of the Republic of Crimea, noted, we could be talking about “tens of trillions of rubles.”

In May 2014, after the reunification of Crimea with Russia, Ukraine unilaterally cut off water from the Kherson region via the North Crimean Canal, which provided up to 90% of the peninsula’s needs. In addition, in November 2015, electricity supplies to the peninsula were completely stopped. A state of emergency was in effect in the region until May 2016, and rolling consumer blackouts were applied. Kyiv also cut off food supplies, banks stopped working, and transport links with the peninsula were disrupted. The situation improved with the launch of an energy bridge from Kuban across the Kerch Strait with a capacity of 400 MW. Then new networks were built, power units of the Balaklava Thermal Power Plant in Sevastopol and the Tavricheskaya Thermal Power Plant in Simferopol were launched.