03.09.2019, Kiev.
Kiev’s annual economic loss from the Crimea blockade is approximately $1 billion, the former Ukrainian minister of economy Viktor Suslov believes. He expressed this opinion in an interview to the 112 Ukraine channel on August 31.
According to Suslov, the blockade of Crimea, as well as the blockade of Donbass, was a mistake on the part of the Ukrainian authorities, which has inflicted gross economic damage to Kiev and, at the same time, allowed Russia to “earn from these territories.”
“As far as I remember, it is over $300 million yearly from electric power exports and over $600 million from the export of foods, which were supplied by the farmers of the Kherson region and Nikolaev region,” this is how Viktor Suslov estimated the damage. This market that Kiev lost is now occupied by Kuban, Stavropol region, and to some extent, Turkey.
In the fall of 2015, the Kiev authorities began an electricity blockade of Crimea. Ukrainian extremist organizations blew up four towers of a power transmission line from the Kherson region to Crimea. Also, back in the spring of 2014, Ukraine blocked the North Crimean Channel, thus starting a water supply blockade of the peninsula. All this broke the economic ties between Ukraine and Crimea and promoted new relations between Crimea with Russia.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
