Ukraine Ready to Supply Water to Crimea in Tanks if Humanitarian Disaster Arises

The Ukrainian authorities are ready to supply water to the occupied Crimea in tanks as part of convoys controlled by humanitarian missions if the UN and the Red Cross declare a humanitarian catastrophe on the peninsula, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories Oleksiy Reznikov has said.

“There is even nothing to discuss here: if Crimea is de-occupied, there will be water,” the official said, stressing once again that there are currently enough drinking water supplies for the civilian population on the occupied peninsula.

“No one will provide water to military bases, the production facilities of militarised Crimea,” the deputy prime minister added.

At the same time, he noted that Ukraine is already working on Plan B for a peaceful settlement of the conflict in Donbas. The plan should focus on the reintegration of the occupied Donbas before Russia withdraws its troops from there.

“We are already working on a Plan B. We are working on reintegration without waiting for de-occupation, and we are drafting a law on transitional public policy. This has not been done for six years; we have conflicting regulations, laws, resolutions, and decrees,” Reznikov said.

According to him, the experience of Nagorno-Karabakh shows that OSCE-mediated talks could prolong the situation for decades, posing a threat of a hot phase of the conflict.

Bohdan Marusyak