Crimea remains a popular holiday destination for Russians, even though it is being targeted by Ukrainian drones. Photo: Olga Maltseva/AFP via Getty Images. Ukrainian drone attacks.
Crimea, with its tree-covered cliffs and sandy beaches, has long been a favorite holiday destination for Russians, but is now on the edge of a war zone.
In northern Crimea, near Ukraine's Kherson region, bookings may have dropped by 50%, a travel agent said, but they have hardly changed in Sevastopol and Yalta, the main tourist centers on the south coast.
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“People have already paid for their services. vacation and don't want to give it up,» she told The Telegraph.
“Besides, the Russian media says everything is under control, and the Russians believe them.”
Another travel agent said that Russian tourists are “used” to the war in Ukraine rattling in the background, although this year the frequency and intensity of drone attacks on Crimea has increased markedly.
Sevastopol is Crimea’s largest city with a population of 500,000, which increases in the summer season.
Tourists love its beaches, shops, restaurants and bars, as well as the harbor where warships and submarines of the Russian Black Sea Fleet can be seen.
But the naval base also makes the Sevastopol harbor a priority target for the Ukrainian military.
About three dozen Ukrainian water and air drones attacked it this week alone, although most visiting tourists do not seem to be bothered by these attacks.
“Some people are nervous, but most people are not affected. You have to understand the Russian mentality,” said Ksenia, the owner of a city hotel with 30 rooms.
“This is Crimea. This is the Black Sea. People always want to be here.”
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In Simferopol, the capital of Crimea, which is located in central Crimea and is popular with tourists for its Tatar connections, parks and laid-back atmosphere, those in the tourism business expressed similar sentiments.
An employee at the Belgian gastropub Barrel Bar near the Botanical Garden said everything was going on as usual.
“It's all the same,” he said. «A great time awaits everyone.»
It has been a dangerous week for Crimea nonetheless.
In addition to shelling Sevastopol harbor, on Monday, an alleged Ukrainian drone strike damaged the only bridge connecting Crimea to the mainland, killing two people.
On Wednesday and Saturday, explosions destroyed two Russian military ammunition depots in the east and in the center of Crimea. On Thursday, a teenage girl was killed in the north of the peninsula by shrapnel from a drone shot down by air defense systems.
Crimea, a diamond-shaped peninsula slightly larger than Wales, jutting out into the Black Sea, holds a special place in the Russian imagination as a dreamy summer destination that attracts the ambitious and wealthy.
Czar Nicholas II and Mikhail Gorbachev vacationed in Crimea. Ever since the Kremlin annexed Crimea in 2014, Moscow's best chefs have rushed to open restaurants there.
Yuliya, a Muscovite and regular visitor, said Crimea was great and interesting—the perfect respite from the stresses of modern life.
“This is Russia’s French Riviera,” she said.
Now, however, Ukraine has said it wants to reclaim the peninsula in its counteroffensive. His tech-savvy supporters incited the Russian occupying forces with an online ad for a «Crimean Beach Party» for NATO leaders.
On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he wanted to «neutralize» the 19-kilometer Kerch Bridge that connects Crimea to the Russian mainland. In the past 10 months, he has been badly damaged by two attacks.
But it all seems very far away in Yalta, about 55 miles east of Sevastopol, where Crimea's most exclusive villas and hotels are located a.
< p>Olga, also from Moscow, spends most of this summer in Yalta, where she bought an apartment three years ago.
She said people sunbathing on Crimean beaches sometimes discuss the war, and the attack on the 19-kilometer Kerch bridge on Monday caused bewilderment. But fighting in Ukraine and even drone attacks on Sevastopol seem far away.
“They are diligently shooting down drones over the sea, and it’s not far from Sevastopol, but look at the map, we are far away,” she said. “It's so beautiful here.”
Her main concern was how to return to Moscow next month. She traveled to Crimea because the airport is closed, but she doesn't like the detour some tourists are taking after Monday's attack on the bridge.
Rather than risk crossing the bridge with its traffic jams and occasional missile strikes, hundreds of Russian tourists have decided to make the 300-mile dash back to Russia, driving north through occupied Zaporozhye and Donbass, which are close to the front line.
Official advice is to use plenty of water , refuel before leaving, and be polite to soldiers at roadblocks.
“I think I’ll take the train,” Olga said.
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