Ukrainian government suspends cargo traffic with Crimea

KIEV -- The Ukrainian government said on Monday it has decided to temporarily suspend the movements of cargos across the contact line between Ukraine's southern Kherson region and the Crimean peninsula.

The cargo traffic would remain suspended until the Ukrainian cabinet compiles a list of products that would be allowed to be supplied to the peninsula, said the statement on the government's website.

Earlier in the day, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has sent a letter to Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk, offering to temporarily terminate automobile and railroad freight transport links with Crimea due to the "escalation of confrontation" between Crimean public activists and the authorities of the peninsula.

For the third consecutive day, activists from the Crimean Tatar community continue blocking the access for maintenance crews to site in Kherson region, where four transmission pylons were reportedly blown up, leaving about 1.8 million people in the Crimean peninsula without electricity.

The autonomous republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol became Russian regions in March 2014 following a referendum recognized by Moscow. Kiev rejected the referendum and Crimea's affiliation with Russia, saying it was unconstitutional.

According to the Ukrainian statistics, in the first half of 2015, Ukraine exported $472.1 million worth of products to Crimea, while the value of its imports from the peninsula stood at 18.1 million dollars.

Ukraine's main exports to Crimea are paintwork materials, dairy products, liquor, alcohol-free beverages and confectionary, while the peninsula exports chemicals, paintwork materials and various types of equipment to Ukraine.