Ukraine’s MoD has released a video warning to Russian tourists to stay away from Crimea (Picture: MoD Ukraine/e2w)
Tourists to Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Russia illegally annexed in 2014, have been warned to ‘stay away’.
Targeted at vacationing Russians, a video released by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence starts with the question, ‘Big plans this summer?’.
Shared online, it features scenes from films including Dirty Dancing and The Big Lebowski under the soundtrack of Madonna’s hit song Celebration.
Starting off like a budget ad with grainy clips of surfers in the water, the captions then read: ‘A travel advisory is in effect for certain beaches.
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’We warned you last summer to stay away from Crimea.’
The video then suddenly cuts to images of explosions and tourists fleeing missile attacks.
A Russian woman is also shown crying in the back of a car.
‘Our seasonal forecast calls for stormy weather,’ warns the last caption of the 40-second video before ending with lightning.
A family relax on a half-empty beach in the resort town of Alushta on the Crimean peninsula (Picture: AFP)
Russian tourists have been warned of ‘stormy weather’ this summer as part of Ukraine’s counteroffensive efforts (Picture: MoD Ukraine/e2w)
Posters with similar warnings have also been circulating social media in recent days.
One promoted bungee jumping in Crimea using pictures from the explosion on Vladimir Putin’s prized Kerch Bridge in October last year.
As war is nearing the peninsula, with speculation that Ukraine will attempt to take it back as part of its counteroffensive efforts, intense police checks are underway for those planning to vacation there.
There are also fears of a new attack on the 10-mile-long bridge linking Crimea to the Russian mainland.
It comes as an assassination attempt on Sergey Aksyonov, the pro-Russia Crimean leader, was thwarted by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB).
The federal agency said a Russian citizen working for Ukraine is behind the failed attack.
A statement from the FSB said: ‘An assassination attempt on the head of the Republic of Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov, organized by the Ukrainian special services, has been thwarted.
‘A citizen of Russia, born in 1988, who was recruited by the Ukrainian Security Council and took a course in reconnaissance and subversive activities on the territory of Ukraine, including training in mine blasting, was detained.’
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The ad from Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence features scenes from films including Dirty Dancing and The Big Lebowski.