Crimea
 

Did a search but there don't seem to be any recent threads. Has anybody been recently and how was it? I'll be heading east in 2020 and spending a little time in southern Russia after exiting Ukraine, thought it might be an interesting place to visit.

I'm aware that Ukraine gets upset if anyone enters Crimea on a Russian visa without seeking their permission, but I'd be going via the Kerch bridge, which is Russian territory so the Ukrainians wouldn't know I'd been there. It's fairly unlikely I'd be going back to Ukraine in future anyway. I'm also aware the FCO warn against travel there as they can't provide consular assistance, but there are worse things in world travel.

Any thoughts, experience, advice? Thanks :)

From what I understand the situation there is pretty stable but you cannot use credit cards and the border between Ukraine and Crimea is closed, locals only you would have to go to Russia and take Kerch straight bridge. And to get there you would have to go around warzone in DNR/LNR.
EDIT: probably phone sim wouldn't work either.

Yes, the UKR border is closed but from what I can see Crimea is accessible from Russia by the Kerch bridge on a normal Russian visa. No need to go anywhere near the warzone in Luhansk/Donetsk.

It is just if Ukraine knows that you have been there.

in 2017 I met some European Motorcycle riders in Russia who have been to a Festival in Crimea and they were worried about Ukraine to go through there.
They had the message, that also in Crimea there are Ukrainian intelligence forces to look who is around.

I dont know if it is so, but this people hat contact to some people there who told them to be careful.

I'm just passing through this thread to remind people that civility is greatly valued here--and difficult to sustain once the subject shifts to sensitive political matters. Please keep your end of things respectful and resist any temptation to poke and prod at the other guy.

Yup, thanks.

Mark (as moderator)

Crimea 2020
 

Hello all!
June 2020 I'll go to crimea !

To get in and out of the Crimea I'll go over the Kercht Bridge.

then to return to Europe, I plan to enter Ukraine via Rostov and cross Ukraine to the border of Lviv
(By avoiding the common border between Ukraine and the Crimea)

Do you have any information about the attitude of Ukrainian customs officers towards travellers who have wheeled into the Crimea?

Have a good day

I don't think you can (or should) enter Ukraine anywhere near Rostov--that whole part of Ukraine is essentially a warzone, or at least not safe and probably not possible to enter or exit. See this thread for a map of the occupied area and coordinates for southernmost practicable crossing into Ukraine:
https://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hu...aganrog-100081

Also here the picture:

https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...922/bQgfCA.jpg

As the guys already said, Ukraine views anyone who has entered Crimea from Russia as having entered the territory illegally. They may be fined, banned from the country, or worse. The question is, would they know? As far as I'm aware there is no special stamp or visa to visit the area, so if you don't tell them, they don't know.

They dont know (or if they do they dont care) unless you blast it all over social media. The only people I have heard of having issues with Ukraine later down the line after visiting Crimea are those who preformed concerts there or other high profile events or are involved in political social media projects against Ukraine. Millions of Russians go to Crimea each year on holidays (6 million last year apparently) and I have not heard of a single normal Russian being denied entry to Ukraine on the basis of having been to Crimea post 2014. For that matter I have not heard of any normal expat being denied on that basis either. As far as I am aware, unless you are high profile and putting out media / social media that the Ukrainian govt objects to, particularly as it pertains to Crimea, then you are extremely unlikely to have an issue. The Ukraine is in no position to allow its relationships with western governments to turn south. They are not going to start locking up westerners for frivolous issues.

The only guy I know of who has even occasionally fallen foul of that rule is Graham Phillips, a British guy based in Crimea (and high profile local blogger - https://www.youtube.com/user/gwplondon/videos) who broadcasts on you tube non stop pro "Crimea in Russia" videos, from Crimea, and he also travels to Ukraine from time to time (usually to show how much worse it is there than in Crimea). Sometimes they dont let him in to Ukraine, sometimes they do. Sometimes they take him in for questioning in Ukraine, but he has never been arrested or charged AFAIK. If thats the worst they do for him, then a biker going thru is not going to have any issues.

August 2020
 

Hi all, thank you guys for the info here.

Agree totally with what Colebatch said about Ukraine

I have been in July 1999 on Crimea and I am now in the early stage of planing my return for August 2020. In July 1999 I encountered a petrol shortage and I recall buying fuel on the black market and waiting for hours at petrol stations for nothing.

This years journey of about a month, maybe six weeks, will take me from Germany thru Poland and the Baltic States very quickly. Before entering Russia near St. Petersburg. Riding the Golden Ring around Moscow and going down to Rostov on the Don. Over the Kerch bridge to Crimea. Spend some time on the beach, as I did in 1999, and then somehow back to Germany.

Talking to a friend about it yesterday, he said I could take a boat (ferry) from Crimea to the West .... ??? Do you guys know if there are any regular boats?

Do I really have to go thru Northern Ukraine on my way back? I dont want go through the hassle of a getting a visa for Belorussia again. And riding up to Lithuania again, is too far of a detour.

What about selling the bike on Crimea/Russia??? I have done that in 2003, but that was a different time. Anyone done that recently?

Paca
mika :scooter:

Crimea
 

Talked to a Russian friend today, he said that there is a ferry from

Sevastopol to Istanbul and from Kerch to Zonguldak. The later maybe only for cargo, he said.

But he also said that one can cross now from Crimea to Ukraine. It would take a few hours, but lots of people are doing this now. I asked him about international travelers (non Russians or Ukrainians) , but he did not know about that.

So, lets see. I just started my research.

paca
mika :scooter:

Looking at my planned route (aside from Crimea) it would actually be very useful to be able to enter Russia from Ukraine, but the authorities forbid it. Also worth noting that your travel insurance will not cover you any places where your embassy says you should not visit.

Russia
 

Do you really mean it when you say ‘entry to Russia from Ukraine is forbidden’?

It's good to hear that situation is changing

the quoted article only refers to "entry and exit tofrom the temporarily occupied territory", which means Crimea and Donbass area. Any other crossings are still fine.

Must be UK thing? If it were true half of Mexico was off limit for us Yankees.

hmm, I've spent quite a bit of time looking online (including via Russian-language searches) and haven't found a live link to a functioning ferry from Sevastopol-Istanbul. Here is one link in Russian from Sep 2019 saying that ferry service is suspended for 2020:
https://www.tourister.ru/world/asia/...blications/409

Here is another site which says there is a ferry, but I'm not sure it is current:
https://xn----ttbgfegd2g.xn--p1ai/pa...topol-turciya/
There is a phone number there, I will try to call this week to find out.

I've looked into this, and as far as I can tell, Russians and Ukrainians can enter Crimea from the north, but not foreigners. This official link shows several road crossings into Crimea, but doesn't say anything about who can use them:
https://dpsu.gov.ua/en/on-the-admini...of-the-crimea/

[EDIT] the link in one of the posts above seems to make clear that foreigners cannot leave/enter Ukraine from Crimea.

In any event, I've not seen anyone post here saying that they have actually crossed, although I might have missed something. Pls post if you find out more.

Link I posted earlier, says that if you enter Crimea from Ukraine you must return to Ukraine via the same border point.

https://dpsu.gov.ua/en/the-order-of-...teless-persons

I don't think that is what is says, or at least I can't read it that way. Here is the text:
**********
"For foreigners and stateless persons entry and exit tofrom the temporarily occupied territory may be done only through “entry-exit” control points with passport or special permit.

Foreigners and stateless persons who arrived to the “entry-exit” control points from the temporarily occupied territory without permission, are not allowed to entry Ukraine and in the shortest time they will be returned to the temporarily occupied territory from which they came, or to the state that issued the passport.

They dwell at the “entry-exit” control point up to their return, if they can not be immediately returned.

Stamp of the prohibition to entry Ukraine for 3 years is put in passport document of such foreigners and stateless persons. "
**********

The translation doesn't appear to be very good, but the text appears to say that anyone with a passport can enter or leave Crimea through a control point.

But anyone arriving at such a control point from Crimea without "permission" will be refused entry into Ukraine and have their passport stamped with a prohibition on entering Ukraine for three years.

Technically it doesn't say that you can't enter Crimea from Ukraine without permission, so perhaps that is possible.

I don't see anything about leaving and entering through the same control point?

@ motoreiter
 

@ motoreiter.

thank you very much for all the info. I did not have the time to do more research yet.

+ so it seems the ferry is not operating anymore .... :(


+ so if I would try to cross from Crimea to Ukraine, I could be sent back with a stamp in my passport not being allowed into Ukraine for three years ..... this would mean I would have to ride up North in Russia to Lithuania before turning West.

+do you know if I can sell the bike and fly out ... and return to Russia? As I said, I did this in 2003, but times have changed so anyway to legally sell/give away the bike?

We are only in February, so there still is a lot of time before I start and a lot of things can change until August.

Spasiva bolshoi
paca
mika

I'm not completely sure yet, let me try to call the ferry number in the next day or two, hopefully that will confirm one way or another--will post here with what I find out.

Actually Russia doesn't have a border with Lithuania, it would have to be Latvia. You could also leave Russia via Belorus and then into Poland, although my understanding is that that involves some border-crossing complexities as well, although I haven't done it so not sure. Or you could ride down to Georgia and catch a ferry to Bulgaria, although I'm not sure that is any easier.

Sell the bike in Crimea? I think that would be very difficult...there cannot be much of a market for bikes there, plus any sale would require payment of Russian customs duties, which AFAIK are not cheap. Might be possible to sell somewhere else, such as Georgia, I'm also looking at this, will try to post here with what I find out.

Note that a stamp in your passport for being denied entry into Ukraine because of Crimea is likely to also be of interest to EU border guards. Especially for a non-EU national. Hard to say for certain, but not impossible that it would be grounds to reject your Schengen visa.

I called the number for the ferry in the webpage linked above...no answer. There are posts on that same page saying that the ferry service closed in March 2017, and that no one has been able to get through on the phone number since 2017 either.

So the ferry situation does not sound promising...

I'm not willing to backtrack to Crimea from Kerch (have already been there twice), so it looks like my route between Germany and Georgia will be either via Kharkov or via one of the ferries from Ukraine/Bulgaria to Georgia.

Oh well...

The point is if you enter Crimea from Ukraine their law says you must come back to Ukraine, not travel on through Russia. It's a system intended for people to visit relatives in the region, basically.

Crimea
 

Hi all,

@ motoreiter. Thank you very much for trying to phone the ferry company. So no ferries. Good to know so early in the planing. Maybe I will try to find a cargo boat going to Rumania or Bulgaria ... but I remember Russian ports not being easy. So lets see ...

You are right, only the enclave Kaliningrad has a border with Lithuania. I mixed it up. Latvia would be long detour and backtracking, so that does not make sense.

So, it looks like I will just buy a visa for Belorussia again, I recall spending around 100 Euros in 2015 for it. This will make the return faster/easier if I am refused entry into Ukraine.

Selling the bike. Yep, Georgia would be a good place to sell, but it is not on my route for this journey. Will ask some Russian friends about it, maybe they know a way. Thanks motoreiter for the imput, very welcome.


@ AnTyx. Thank you for your speculation. To no use for me, but maybe others are scared now to try.


mika :scooter:

As far as I know you have to pay 30% import tax for the bike, and this will be counted on the price as a new bike.

It is a hassle to leave a bike in Russia when you have to deal with customs. When you don't do that the proper way, you will be refused to enter after your TIP is expired.
I know people who have been returned on the border for this

Just request 1 year importation at the border they allow up to one year. Default 90 days.

You can request extension; the person you left the bike with has to go to customs with documents and notarized letter explaining why you cannot take bike out of the country in allocated time (family circumstances, etc) or take bike and have it impound at location.

So it sounds like you plan to try to enter Ukraine from Crimea? Otherwise you could just enter Ukraine near Kharkov, no need to go through Belorus.

If you do try to enter Ukraine from Crimea, please let us know here how it goes, would be interesting to have a first-hand account...

Is this definitely the current status? Several years ago it was limited to 90 days at the border (but extendable up to one year), but then they switched to one year as the default. Have they switched it back to 90 days?

Again, is this the current process? Several years ago when the Temp Import was 90 days, it could be renewed for up to a year, but it was kind of a hassle to do it, at least in Moscow.

Mika,

Did you mean entering Belarus from Russia?
I am no expert but as far as I know their is no ¨international border¨ between Belarus ans Russia. Foreigners are still not allowed to cross the Belarus-Russian border into Russia. I assume it will be valid then also the other way around from Russia to Belarus. The latest information i read still says that Russia and Belarus are talking about opening a border crossing for foreigners between their countries but the relationship between those countries is not up to its best for now. Don´t take my word for it but maybe good to get better information about this topic if you plan to go that way.

https://belarusfeed.com/belarus-russ...-how-to-cross/

Best regards,
Rögnvaldur

There is one border which works.

It is the three way border "Three Sisters" in the corner Belarus, Ukraine and Russia.

This one works.
I have met motorcycle riders who crossed there.

Seems like it would only be a day's ride from there up to Latvian border (and depending on where you're going, another day's ride back down); honestly I'd probably rather do that than mess with the Belorus visa/border hassles.

Current of October 1st 2019. I had mine imported at Kyrgyzstan though it is the same system.

Crimea
 

Priviet,

@motoreiter

Yes, thats the idea at the moment. But of course I will talk to locals and Russian and Ukrainian friends before I try. I assume Crimea will be visited in August by lots of Ukrainians on holiday, so I will just gather info.

@Rognv

Yes, the plan is, when I refused entry into Ukraine I will cross into Belarus. Thank you for the link, this is new to me .... seems very strange.

In 2015 I crossed overland from Belarus to Russia on the bike. The border that Klausmong1 mentioned, in the South of Belarus, East of Gomel.

If your information is correct, then a visa for Belarus would be useless for me.


Thanks all for the info. It helps me planing my short trip :D this European summer.

mika :scooter:

Who said that? and where?

Entry to Russia from Ukraine happens all the time ... thousands of vehicles every day. Just not at closed border crossings. There are plenty that are open (from the Belarus Border corner to near Kharkiv)