At the July NATO summit in Warsaw, in the already traditional anti-Russian tone, among other things, they again talked about the fact that the alliance will increase its presence in the Black Sea region, and Russia must by all means abandon Crimea.
The day before the opening of this summit, US Vice President Joe Biden shared with the media his views on Ukraine's role in Washington's geopolitical games and the importance of Crimea as a military base for the United States. From his lips the following words sounded: “The key interest for us is Crimea, which was controlled by Kiev until 2014. This region could serve as an excellent military base for NATO and the US troops themselves. He also hinted that it was time for Kiev to take care of the return of Crimea under its control.
Almost simultaneously with Biden's statement, Petro Poroshenko opened up, a column appeared on the pages of the Wall Street Journal, where he writes: “Today we have a modern and reliable army. We have created a completely new special forces. 15 new brigades have been formed. The process of combat training and education has been modernized. The strategic military documents developed in cooperation with NATO experts have been approved. Poroshenko also said that his army allegedly has experience of successful hostilities against Russian troops.
Somewhat earlier, the newly minted Ukrainian naval commander, a former tanker, now Vice Admiral Igor Voronchenko spoke about his plans to deliver a brigade of tanks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to the territory of Crimea by sea to capture it.
Comparison of these statements suggests itself. Obviously, Washington, in its unobtrusive manner, is pushing Independent to take more decisive actions (than the blockade) aimed at regaining control over Crimea. But the catch is that Ukraine, represented by the Kiev political leadership, is not yet morally ready for such a dangerous adventure. America needs this peninsula to house the entire spectrum of military forces. This will allow Washington to threaten a Russian land invasion from the south, drive the Russian Black Sea Fleet out of the Black Sea, and close the region's airspace to Russian military aviation. But Washington also understands that the consequences of an attempt to openly seize Crimea by force are unpredictable. In addition, Moscow already proved in 2008 in Georgia that it is capable of decisive action in the fight against an external adversary, despite the threat of the West. Apparently, America plans to throw Ukraine into this cauldron alone with a little tacit military support of individual NATO member countries, but in no case involving the alliance in this quarrel, otherwise the hour is unequal, and the third world war may break out.
In general, despite the fact that Kiev is afraid to get involved in a fight with Moscow, and the West prudently avoids this, the situation around Crimea is gradually heating up.
THE CRIMEA'S SAINT POINT
Crimea is currently experiencing a state that resembles a siege. The West covered the rebellious Taurida with sanctions. Nezalezhnaya cut off the supply of water and electricity, stopped rail and road communications with the peninsula. And as luck would have it, the summer of 2014 turned out to be sultry, dry, and in the next two winters there was little rainfall.
For Crimea, fresh water is of particular value. It is sometimes sorely lacking there, despite the fact that Crimea has its own water resources. These are 1657 rivers of various sizes with permanent and temporary watercourses, of which only 150 have a relative stability of water discharge. The longest Salgir is about 220 km, the deepest is Belbek.
There are about 300 lakes and 1,900 irrigation ponds on the peninsula, and there are also underground aquifers. Fresh water resources are distributed over the territory of Crimea extremely unevenly due to the peculiarities of the landscape. The most abundant fresh water is the foot of the northern slopes of the center of the main ridge of the Crimean mountains. The driest regions are the north-western (Tarkhan Kut), the eastern territory of the peninsula (Leninsky district, Kerch, Feodosia, Koktebel, Sudak) and Sevastopol.
According to the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation, there are 23 reservoirs in Crimea, the total volume of which is nearly 400 million cubic meters. m. Over the past two years, this department had to completely redo the water supply system of the peninsula, which was fed with water from the North-Crimean canal, within the "fire" period. This year, the implementation of 29 out of 30 measures was completed, of which 25 projects are the construction and reconstruction of underground water production wells. In general, to date, the population of Crimea is provided with a sufficient amount of water resources, some eastern parts, including the city of Kerch and the Feodosiya-Sudak region, are experiencing difficulties. To solve these problems, it is planned to build a water conduit from the Nezhinsky, Novogrigorievsky and Prostornensky water fields. The length of the water conduit will be about 200 kilometers, it will ensure the supply of 195 thousand cubic meters of water per day.
In the best times, a lot of snow accumulates on the plateau of the Crimean mountains (Yailakh) during the winter, the depth of the cover is 1.2 m, in the lower parts of the mountains it is 0.7–0.8 m. Due to the large volume of water formed during the thawing period, recharge surface runoff reservoirs and underground aquifers. So, the Chernorechenskoye reservoir is designed for 63 million cubic meters. m, if the winter is snowless, then it does not fill up to normal and by September the water level in it reaches the red line. And this is one of those reservoirs that feeds on the discharge of the main mountain range and fissure-karst waters during the flood period. There are two such periods in Crimea. One winter (long), it belongs to the February warming windows and is accompanied by prolonged rains, sometimes turning into snowfall. And the second spring, when there is an active melting of snows, accompanied by heavy precipitation in the form of rain.
Dnieper water, which was supplied to the North Crimean Canal (NCC) from the Kakhovka Reservoir, covered 85% of the needs of the Crimea, but was mainly used for irrigation. Ukraine, following the rule that all means are good in war, at the most difficult moment (in terms of water supply) cut off the supply of Dnieper water to the peninsula. As a result, there was a serious deficit of it. Irrigated lands have decreased from 164.7 to 17.7 thousand hectares, the Mezhgornoye reservoir, which was fed with water only from the NCC, practically ceased to exist.
NORTH CRIMEAN CHANNEL
The construction of the canal began in the first half of the 50s, at the first stage it was an all-Union construction. The first water was supplied to it in 1963. By 1975, the canal reached Kerch, its length exceeded 400 km. By the mid-70s, the construction of the first stage of the canal was generally completed. The operation of the canal made it possible not only to eliminate the shortage of water on the peninsula, but also to irrigate about 280 thousand hectares of agricultural land.
From the very beginning of the construction of the canal, there was a catastrophic shortage of concrete. Therefore, most of its channel had an unpaved bottom. Water losses reached 20%. The construction of the canal continued, to date it has not been completed. Improvement of the already erected part of the canal, concreting of its bottom and banks was carried out in winter, when the water supply was shut off and the channel dried out. At some point, the loss of water was significantly reduced. The authorities, as they say, went wild, they began to grow rice on the arid peninsula, and this crop requires a lot of moisture. Rice farming has done a lot of damage to the environment.
In 1986, 2.3 billion cubic meters were supplied to Crimea via the canal. m of water. This resource fed 8 reservoirs: Zelenoyarskoye, Mezhgornoye, Feodosiyskoye, Frontovoye, Leninskoye, Samarlinskoye, Sokolskoye, Kerchenskoye, whose total volume amounted to almost 146 million cubic meters. m.
As time went on, the canal had not yet been completed, but it had already begun to collapse, besides, the quality of the Dnieper water noticeably deteriorated. The pollution of the Dnieper was caused by the sewerage system of cities, industrial enterprises, one hydroelectric power station and two nuclear power plants (Chernobyl and Zaporozhye). Due to the deterioration of the structures by the time of the overlap in 2014, the water loss in the canal exceeded the previous 20%.
By the time the Dnieper water supply was cut off, the Crimean bulk reservoirs were filled to 58% (about 85 million cubic meters of water). The water level in the Starokrymsky, Alminsky and Lgovsky reservoirs was below the red mark. In other reservoirs of the peninsula, replenished by natural runoff, the total contained 146 million cubic meters. m of water. Crimea found itself in a difficult situation: in order to drastically reduce water consumption, they decided to abandon irrigation of most of the farmland, and refused to cultivate rice altogether.
THE MINISTRY OF DEFENSE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED WITH WATER SUPPLY
By the decision of the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, General of the Army Sergei Shoigu, a pipeline battalion of the logistics brigade of the Western Military District (MTO ZVO) was urgently transferred from the Nizhny Novgorod region to the Crimea. As conceived by the General Staff, four railway echelons were allocated for the delivery of equipment and 27 thousand pipes. For the delivery of personnel, military transport aircraft were used. The task was not easy. They had to work in mountainous terrain, impassable for heavy tractor-stackers. The military manually installed pipelines with a total capacity of 10 thousand cubic meters. m per day, in the Kirovsky district of the Old Crimea, one of the driest on the peninsula.
By May 14, the military drilled several artesian wells, laid a pipeline to supply drinking water to the Old Crimea. In the same period, work was carried out, which made it possible to organize the discharge of water from the Taiginsky and Belogorsky reservoirs along the bed of the Biyuk-Karasu river to the NCC. By the fall, the military had installed four pipelines with a total length of over 125 km, through which, according to a temporary scheme, water from artesian wells was supplied to the settlements of the Crimea.
Deputy Defense Minister General of the Army Dmitry Bulgakov noted the professionalism and quickness of the military plumbers. He also highly appreciated the efficiency of the battalion's advance from the place of permanent deployment to Crimea, the clarity of the actions of the commanders and personnel in the deployment of forces and equipment, the well-coordinated work of units, logistic services of the MTO ZVO brigade and enterprises of Russian Railways.
Back in May 2014, the leadership of the Republic of Crimea understood that targeted measures could not be enough and the problem of water supply had to be solved on a large scale. It was decided to reanimate water intakes in the north of Crimea and ensure the supply of water from them to consumers, using temporary water conduits, river beds and NCC, this decision was supported at the federal level. The issue of water supply is one of the key not only for the life of Crimea, but also in the organization of its defense. Back in Soviet times, three water intakes in Dzhankoy and Nizhnegorsk regions were explored and partially equipped: Nezhinsky, Prostornensky, Novogrigorievsky. Then, in connection with the construction of the SCC, they drowned them out and did not operate. In addition to conducting exploration work, it was necessary to drill additional wells at the rate of 12 for each water intake with a depth of 113, 165 and 180 m (respectively), mount reservoirs for water accumulation, power plants and build water pipelines to the NCC.
This time, the Ministry of Defense set the task of the ZVO and the Eastern Military District (VVO) to allocate forces and means for the rapid construction of a water supply system in Crimea in the winter-spring period of 2015. The personnel of the pipeline battalion of the logistics brigade of the Air Defense Forces, about 300 servicemen, were urgently transferred from Buryatia to the Crimea by military transport aviation (MTA) aircraft. The military department transferred materials and more than 90 units of military and special equipment to the destination by rail.
This time, 100 servicemen, 40 units of military and special equipment were allocated from the pipeline battalion of the MTO ZVO brigade. The personnel were transferred from the place of permanent deployment in the Nizhny Novgorod region by means of military aviation to Belbek airport, then by road to the place of work. And the delivery of equipment and materials to the Crimea was entrusted to railway workers.
The main task of the military this time was the laying of water pipelines according to a temporary scheme in the form of pipelines from the above water intakes to the NCC.
The ZVO battalion completed the task at the end of May 2015. He installed a 6-kilometer water conduit from the Nezhinsky water intake to the SKK channel, consisting of 24 field water lines with a total length of 124 km. Artesian wells with a depth of 180 m were drilled at the water intake itself. Its total maximum permissible productivity was 45 thousand cubic meters. m per day. Now from the Nizhyn water intake water is supplied in the amount of 37–42 thousand cubic meters. m per day.
Back to the place of permanent deployment, the personnel were flown by VTA planes. The vehicles moved under their own power mainly along country roads, in five columns, accompanied by military police and military traffic police.
Military pipelines of the Air Defense Forces completed their work by mid-June and departed for the place of permanent deployment. Their main task was to lay a temporary water conduit from the reanimated Prostornensky and Novogrigorievsky water intakes to the channel of the NCC. As a result, 24 field trunk pipelines with a total length of 288 km were installed.
After the departure of the military, work continued by the forces of contracting organizations. A test run of water from the Prostornensky water intake was made on December 10.
PROSPECTS FOR WATER SUPPLY
This year, according to the Ministry of Natural Resources, in April, the filling of the peninsula's reservoirs, both liquid and natural runoff, was again insufficient to forget about a possible water shortage by the end of the year. In this regard, the Department of State Policy and Regulation in the field of water resources, the Ministry of Ecology of the Crimea started thinking about educational work with the population aimed at minimizing water consumption in the region.
Ilya Razbash, head of the public relations department of the Information and Analytical Center for the Development of the Water Management Complex, who headed this work, reasonably remarked: “Crimea is a water-deficient region, in which the idea of water saving is especially relevant. In previous years, while the canal was open, the level of water consumption on the peninsula per person increased to 700 liters per day. In the megalopolis, the more or less well-established practice of consumption is 120-130 liters. Our task was to make useful knowledge about water saving not boring and understandable. The educational campaign "I am water" in Crimea is quite popular among the local population and tourists, judging by social networks "..
The torrential rains that took place in Crimea in late June - early July have significantly replenished the reservoir of water bodies, now the peninsula is provided with water. Well, this year was lucky, but what will happen then if the new winter passes again with low rainfall and the summer is dry? The resumption of water supply from the Dnieper is unlikely, at least in the visible future it cannot be counted on. The project to transfer the water of such rivers as the Kuban and Don to the peninsula was also recognized as insolvent for many reasons and is not being considered yet. One thing remains: Crimea must provide itself with water on its own.
According to experts, for a start, it is necessary to introduce a control system and rational water consumption for the needs of housing and communal services. In agriculture, it is preferable to switch largely to capillary irrigation, which will significantly reduce losses, and you will certainly have to abandon crops that require abundant irrigation. It is also necessary to prevent inappropriate opening of fractured-caste aquifers, as happened during the development of the Kadykovsky open-pit. The design of reservoirs should be approached more thoughtfully, taking into account the results of geological surveys and archival data. Among the dubious projects of the authorities, Crimean hydrogeologists name the intention to create a reservoir with a volume of 20 million cubic meters. m on the Kokkozka River in order to transfer its waters to the Chernorechenskoye reservoir. According to experts, such a project promises unjustified costs, since the entire channel of the Kokkozka River is located below the Chernorechensky reservoir. In addition, it will cause a decrease in the mass of the underflow waters of the Belbek River, which can lead to negative consequences, including a decrease in the productivity of the Lyubimovsky water intake, which, like the Chernorechensky reservoir, is used to supply water to Sevastopol. That is, in all respects, the project looks meaningless.
According to the representative of the Ministry of Natural Resources, all wells ever drilled on the peninsula are registered and strictly controlled. In fact, it turned out that this is not entirely true. Of those wells that are not in operation, some are closed, some are lost, and some of them are simply abandoned and not controlled by anyone. That is, in this area there is still order to be put in order. There are cases when water is withdrawn above normal from active, registered wells located near the coastline - this is fraught with the formation of a depression funnel, as a result of which seawater is sucked into the aquifer.
All experts, without exception, point to the dilapidation of the water supply system, water pipelines and CCC, as a result of which the loss of water is 40%, and at times it reaches 50%.
Currently, there are three options for water supply to Crimea. Some experts believe that the peninsula has sufficient reserves of water, which, even in the driest years, with the correct organization of the water supply system, can fully cover all needs, with the proviso that in agriculture it is necessary to abandon crops that require abundant irrigation.
There is another option that the Crimea can provide itself with fresh water only for a rather long time (up to 50 years), and then, if possible, return to supplying it from the Dnieper, otherwise it will be necessary to lead a pipeline from the mouth of the Don along the bottom of the Azov Sea to the Crimea.
Some experts came to the conclusion that the Crimea can provide itself with fresh water only if there is enough abundant precipitation in the autumn-winter period. With the frequent repetition of dry winters, even with a perfect organization of the water supply system, fresh water supplies on the peninsula will be depleted rather quickly, in less than a decade.
WHERE TO TAKE WATER
According to the Ministry of Natural Resources, in the mountainous Crimea, there are 2,605 high-quality fresh water sources with a total flow rate of 10,350 l / s, which is 326 million cubic meters per year. m, this water feeds the rivers of the peninsula and partly underground aquifers. Many of them are not currently used for water supply. A simple calculation gives encouraging data - about 1.3 billion cubic meters can be obtained from explored sources in Crimea. m per year. It also takes into account the water reserves in the largest artesian basins of the flat Crimea: Severo-Sivashsky (666 thousand cubic meters per day), Belogorsky (119 thousand cubic meters).m per day) and Alminsky (452, 0 thousand cubic meters per day).
Currently, the peninsula is supplied with water from reservoirs and underground sources. Already, coverage of the water deficit in the steppe and eastern parts of Crimea has been achieved through the commissioning of three water intakes - Nezhinsky, Prostornensky and Novogrigorievsky. Moreover, water intake from them is still limited. According to the State Unitary Enterprise of the Republic of Kazakhstan "Krymgeologiya", the explored water reserves on these horizons will last for 50 years. The Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of Crimea, Gennady Naraev, assured that “The quality of the water here is very good. The water from these wells complies with all drinking GOST standards. " He also said that so far water is mainly supplied to the SCC from two water intakes - Nezhinsky and Prostorensky in the amount of 50 thousand m3 / day. (The total maximum capacity of these water intakes is 75 thousand m3 / day).
To use the water resources of the peninsula more optimally, a decision was made at the federal level to create five more reservoirs. At the same time, Dmitry Kirillov, Director of the Department of State Policy and Regulation in the Field of Water Resources and Hydrometeorology of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation, assured that “the decision on the construction of each of the five reservoirs will be made, as they say, piece by piece after carrying out design surveys and studying the feasibility of construction on a particular river tributary”.
According to RusHydro experts, the restoration of artesian water intakes, explored in Soviet times, but “frozen”, should be continued with the beginning of the Dnieper water supply. In addition to these measures, further transfer of water from local rivers to the CCC is required. In addition, it was decided to expand hydrogeological surveys. By the decision of the Russian government, 3, 369 billion rubles were allocated from the federal budget. for uninterrupted supply of the Crimean Federal District with drinking water and water for agricultural needs. In particular, 2, 178 billion rubles. allocated by the Ministry of Natural Resources for transfers to the Crimea and Sevastopol and 1, 194 billion rubles. - to the Ministry of Construction for similar transfers.
According to a group of local geologists, the search for water reserves in the mountainous part of Crimea should be below the level previously explored. They believe that fissure-karst and fissure waters are present in the region in a much larger volume than is now known, since earlier exploration was carried out only within the zone of increased fracturing at a depth of 50 to 850 m. It is also necessary to carry out work aimed at intercepting fractures - karst waters by submarine discharge, which will give a significant amount of fresh water, which now goes irrevocably into the sea.
I have in my hands a very interesting document - the concept of water supply for the city of Sevastopol, in which local geologists give recommendations for the exploration of several promising areas that will fully cover the city's needs for fresh water. The stake is placed on additional research of already explored sources and on the continuation of the exploration of new sources at a depth of up to 1 thousand meters, taking into account the locality and multilayerness of aquifers.
Experts also suggest desalinating water as additional measures and using treated waste water, of course, only for technical needs.
DANGER OF THE SECOND CRIMEAN WAR
The experience of the first Crimean war of 1853-1856, for obvious reasons, can only be considered in general terms when it comes to the ability of the Crimean military group to resist possible aggression. The experience of the Civil War and the Great Patriotic War can also be used only partially. Open participation of the alliance forces in the hostilities in Crimea is unlikely. The General Staff of Ukraine, according to President Poroshenko, has developed a number of strategic plans, obviously, among them there is a plan to seize Crimea. Logically, it should provide for several directions of invasion. Alternatively, an amphibious assault on the coast of the northwestern and northeastern Crimea, the seizure of the Kerch Peninsula, the forcing of the shallow Sivash Bay and attempts to break through the Perekop Isthmus, Chongar and the Arabat Spit can be made. Crimea should be ready for a temporary naval blockade from the Sea of Azov and the destruction of all communications connecting it with mainland Russia through the Kerch Bay.
The plan should include several stages of execution. At the first stage, the deployment of sabotage and reconnaissance groups (DRG), the task of which will be very broad: the destruction of military facilities, primarily the systems of DBK, missile defense, air defense; organizing or imitating an insurgency; terrorist attack, sabotage. The second echelon on civilian watercrafts will deliver troops to various points on the peninsula. Most likely, NATO provides for the supply of equipment and weapons for the Armed Forces of Ukraine by individual member countries of the alliance, the use of units from the Polish and Baltic "volunteers" (as was observed in the Donbas events), since Ukraine will not be able to muster enough forces to carry out this plan.
The main stage of the “capture of Crimea” will undoubtedly be the informational part of the operation - influencing the world community in order to initiate the process of further political isolation of Russia as an aggressor.
WATER SUPPLY FOR TROOPS IN CRIMEA
The issue of water supply for Russian troops and navy in Crimea is by no means idle. Engineering services must provide water to places of permanent and temporary deployment, areas of concentration of military units and formations, command and control points and ZKP. Military water supply facilities should be guarded and used only by the military.
Unfortunately, there are negative examples. At Cape Fiolent (Sevastopol), two artesian wells, intended for water supply to military units, are used by local horticultural associations. Water intake from them is in excess of the norm, as a result, a depressive funnel is formed, due to which seawater is sucked into the wells.
The organization of a separate water supply system for the troops is a costly and laborious business, but you must agree, it is necessary. We are talking about the defense capability of the Crimea.
In the near future, more water will be needed for the needs of the military due to the fact that the forces and means of the military grouping of the peninsula have been building up recently. Air defense and missile defense of the peninsula are actively developing. Anti-aircraft missile regiments have already received Pantsir-S anti-aircraft missile and cannon systems and have been reinforced with two S-300PMU regiments. In August, the 18th Air Defense Regiment will receive S-400 complexes. In Crimea, it is planned to deploy at least a regiment of Su-27 interceptors.
The frigate of project 11356 "Admiral Grigorovich", two small missile ships of project 21631 ("Serpukhov" and "Zeleny Dol") have already arrived in Sevastopol. Two more ships will be sent to Crimea by the end of 2016. A total of six small missile ships of project 21631 Buyan-M. On the peninsula, the divisions of the BRK "Bastion" are deployed.
Front-line bombers and Su-24 reconnaissance aircraft, Be-12 amphibians, combat and transport helicopters are stationed at military airfields in Gvardeyskoye and Kach. The 27th mixed air division is being formed on the peninsula. So far, it includes only two aviation regiments. The 62nd Fighter Regiment is based at Belbek airfield, with four Su-30 and ten Su-27SM aircraft in its fleet. There is information about the deployment of long-range Tu-22M3 bombers on the peninsula. The 39th helicopter regiment is based in Dzhankoy, which has Ka-52 and Mi-28N attack vehicles, as well as transport helicopters.
96 military units and formations of the Ministry of Defense are stationed in Crimea. Among them are the 810th Separate Marine Brigade, 126th Separate Coastal Defense Brigade. Recently, two units were formed - an artillery regiment and a separate regiment of radiation, chemical and biological protection.
The 112th separate brigade of the Rosgvardia troops is deployed on the peninsula. The strengthening of the group will continue. The reality is that if Russia cannot stay in Crimea, it will turn into a US military base.
The issue of comprehensive provision of the peninsula is complex, and fresh water is one of its key components.
