Crimea

Ukraine's embassy on Thursday commemorated 70 years since the deportation of Crimean Tatars and 153 years since national poet Taras Shevchenko was re-buried in the Ukrainian land.

The Russian tourists would prefer to go on vacation in Sochi and Crimea, rather than in the Bulgarian sea resorts, shows an analysis of the Green Life real estate company.

The governor of the Kherson region Yurii Odarchenko claimed the occupation authorities in Crimea wrecked the installations of the North Crimean canal. 

According to Odarchenko, quoted by the wire agency Ukrinform, said they seized the canal and tried to draw water from open reservoirs, but wrecked the installations instead. 

The Russian Black Sea Fleet is to receive 30 new warships under a naval construction program by 2020, according to Admiral Viktor Chirkov, Commander-in-chief of the Russian Navy.

Russia's Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu earlier estimated that more than USD 2.3 B will be put aside for the renovation.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's trip to the recently-annexed Crimean peninsula was condemned by EU, US and NATO officials. 

Ukraine's acting Presidnet Oleksandr Turchynov signed the bill passed by Parliament, declaring Crimea an occupied territory.

The bill was passed by the Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) on April 15, with the aim of ensuring the rights of citizens in the "temporarily occupied territories of Crimea and Sevastopol", ITAR-TASS informed.

President Rosen Plevneliev has emphasized the clear and unambiguous support of Bulgaria for all decisions of the EU and the European Parliament in an interview for Deustchlandfunk.

Asked to comment on the crisis in Ukraine, he noted that Russia's annexation of Crimea had questioned the very foundations of the system of international law.

Mustafa Dzhemilev, the leader of Crimean Tatars, has been refused entry into Russia, Crimea included.

Russian authorities have imposed a ban on Dzhemilev, who is an MP from Prime Minister Yatsenyuk and presidential candidate Tymoshenko's Batkivshchina, until 2019, RBC Daily has reported, citing the Mejlis (the Tatar assembly).

The Crimean Peninsula could become a gambling zone, after Russian President Putin introduced Monday a bill into Parliament.

Ukraine’s breakaway region of Crimea will fully switch to the Russian ruble within the next 2-3 weeks.

“The (Ukrainian) hryvnia circulation deadline should be cut as much as possible. We will try to refuse hryvnia payments in 2-3 weeks”, Crimean Prime Minister Sergey Aksyonov said on Friday, quoted by ITAR-TASS.