Crimean Tatar activists threaten to impose sea blockade on Crimea

Activists from the Crimean Tatar community, who have disrupted electricity and food supplies to Crimea from Ukraine, vowed on Wednesday to impose a maritime blockade on the peninsula soon.

"We are preparing for the sea blockade of Crimea using all means and forces. It would be launched at the end of 2015 or the beginning of 2016," Lenur Islyamov, coordinator of the Crimea blockade, told reporters.

Without giving details on the nature of the blockade, Islyamov said protesters have already received a preliminary consent from the leaders of the Crimean Tatar community to launch it.

Earlier this month, Islyamov said that the Crimea blockade activists are preparing to disrupt a ferry connection across the Kerch Straight, separating the peninsula and Russia.

On Nov. 22, activists, including ethnic Crimean Tatars and members of Ukrainian nationalist movements, allegedly destroyed several electricity pylons in the Kherson region of southern Ukraine, including two important power lines leading to Crimea, leaving more than 1.8 million people in the Black Sea resort in blackout.

Three days later, the Ukrainian government decided to temporarily suspend the movements of cargos across the contact line between Ukraine's southern Kherson region and the Crimea due to "escalation of confrontation" between Crimean public activists and the authorities of the peninsula. Endi