The military personnel of the Russian occupation forces located in the territory of Crimea will be introduced a 10 percent bonus for service in “desert and arid regions”.
The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation has prepared a draft order of the Government of the Russian Federation, the text of which was published on Wednesday on the official portal of draft regulations.
The project was prepared "due to the deterioration of climatic conditions and aggravation of the ecological situation in places of deployment of military units in the territory of the Republic of Crimea".
Due to the termination of Ukraine’s supply of water to the North Crimean Canal in 2014, as well as due to a small amount of rainfall and the lack of rivers, “there is a shortage of fresh water in the Crimea, and irrigated land areas have decreased,” the defense ministry of the occupying country said.
Up till Russia’s invasion in the spring of 2014, mainland Ukraine provided Crimea with 85% of its fresh water needs via the North-Crimean canal which links the main source of the Dnipro with the peninsula. The supplies were terminated in April 2014, and with very little rain this year, the situation is becoming very serious. Russia is unable to provide the amounts of fresh water needed to sustain agriculture on the peninsula.
The draft government order provides for the assignment of the territory of Crimea the status of "desert and waterless territory" and the establishment of a coefficient of 1.1 for the salaries of Russian troops in the Crimea.
