A secret Russian plan to transform the southeastern coast of Ukraine… Into a series of seaside resorts by 2030. Details of this project were revealed in pro-regime Russian media, map at the support, Thursday June 20. Beaches as far as the eye can see, water sports or wellness centers, “eco-responsible” accommodation and “natural areas” housing ostrich farms, or even a sturgeon breeding program dedicated to recreational fishing … All on the coasts of the Sea of Azov bordering Ukraine, from northern Crimea to southern Donbass. New proof of Moscow’s desire to occupy these Ukrainian territories in the long term.
Russia therefore aims to build 20 new seaside resorts, in and around the cities of Melitopol, Berdiansk or Mariupol, where a marina would then be built. Currently devastated by two years of Russian bombing, these cities would become the Russian-Ukrainian capitals of green tourism.
A “new vacation Mecca”, enthuses the Russian newspaper Komsomilskaya Pravda, close to the regime. This should make it possible, the media welcomes, to relieve the seaside resorts already built in annexed Crimea, which are congested during the summer. “Russia may be the largest country in the world, but we are limited in warm seas. Sochi and Yalta (in occupied Crimea) are not enough, in high season it’s a rush there,” judges the newspaper.
A 30 billion euro plan
For this project, Moscow would not skimp on resources: nearly 2,700 billion rubles, or 30 billion euros, according to Russian media. An extravagant budget, which in reality corresponds to a desire to integrate the invaded Ukrainian region into Russian national territory. In order to directly connect these occupied regions to the Russian federation and to normalize access to them, Vladimir Putin’s regime intends, for example, to build new roads and highways, renovate railways or create new airlines, as it did with the Crimean peninsula, reveals the media.
Such infrastructure could accommodate up to 16 million tourists per year, reports the British online media Inewsand would be marketed to international visitors from countries such as Russia, but also Kazakhstan and Belarus.
According to the US-funded media network Radio Free Europe, some officials in the occupied territories have already been informed of plans to develop new tourist infrastructure. The Russian-appointed administrator for Zaporizhia is said to have announced on Telegram “a project that involves the construction of more than 100 hotels”, while Russian occupation authorities in the southern region of Kherson have also announced plans to develop new tourist resorts and new infrastructure, reports the media.
Russia makes ecological claims
This crazy project would actually be nothing new. Even before the start of the war in 2022, Moscow had a desire to exploit the shores of the Sea of Azov, underline the specialists of France 24. Because apart from the significant profit that this seaside program could represent, it is also “like for the reconstruction of Mariupol starting in 2022, […] a way of justifying large-scale corruption and the enrichment of friends of power,” Rory Finnin, Ukraine specialist at the University of Cambridge, told the international media.
Russia even goes so far as to display ecological claims for this occupied region: Russian investments would thus make it possible, according to anonymous official sources who spoke to the media Komsomilskaya Pravda, to fight against the “desertification” of southern Ukraine, caused by the destruction last year of the Kakhovka dam. The Kremlin has not yet publicly confirmed this information.