MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th December, 2020) Russia will solve the Crimea water shortage issue despite the Ukrainian threats to prevent the implementation of water desalination project in Crimea that reflect Kiev's indifference to the challenges faced by the peninsula's population, a source in the Russian Foreign Ministry told Sputnik on Friday.
On Tuesday, the head of Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov, said that the construction of industrial plants for desalinating water in Crimea would start on January 1. The first facilities were planned to be installed in the western Crimean village of Frunze and the southern city of Yalta. Ukraine's foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has recently pledged that Kiev will prevent the implementation of the project.
"Yes, they will play dirty tricks, it is clear. But this is a strategy that may arouse only pity. The people do not understand facts of life, do not understand that nothing depends on their actions. This approach is not constructive. Such actions do not command respect and trust in them," the source said.
The source added that the Ukrainian foreign minister's statement demonstrated Kiev's indifference to the fate of Crimeans.
"Kuleba's words reflect the true attitude of Ukraine's current authorities toward the residents of Crimea: they do not care about the people's lives. The desire to play dirty tricks is not the noblest one, and does not indicate the high moral quality of our Ukrainian colleagues who said so, without thinking of urgent needs of the population. Their approach - the worse, the better � it is on their conscience," the source said.
The source stressed that threats expressed by the Ukrainian foreign minister would have no serious impact on the implementation of the project, and all problems that the population of the peninsula faced would be settled.
"The plans on the solution to the Crimea water supply problem are unlikely to depend on Mr. Kuleba's remarks. Sooner or later, anyway, all problems that Crimea face will be solved," the source said.
Crimea used to rely on Ukraine for over 85 percent of its freshwater supply. Following the Crimean referendum on reunification with Russia in 2014, Kiev unilaterally cut all supplies, leaving the peninsula almost completely dependent on supplies from reservoirs fillable by either rainwater or underground springs.
Following the drought this year, the reservoirs dried up, prompting Simferopol and several other parts of Crimea to make consumer supplies strictly rationed and scheduled. The Russian government has allotted some 50 billion rubles ($681 million) to modernize the Crimean water infrastructure and secure sustainable water supplies.
