Sinister Events on Independence Day

On the Independence Day celebrated on August 24, Ukrainian authorities tried to create a festive atmosphere. In Sevastopol they played loud Ukrainian music that irritated the majority of residents fed up of nationalistic propaganda. There was no festive mood in Crimean capital Simferopol either. Twenty five residents of an apartment house in the Turguenev street staged a hunger strike in a downtown square to protest against water and energy shortages. In the afternoon, a 43-year-old woman from Feodosia tried to immolate herself. She took a bottle of alcohol out of her purse and started opening it. Before this attempt the woman shouted that she cannot stand her life any more because of rising prices and low income. Police did not let the woman kill herself and transported her to a mental institution. On the Ukrainian Independence Day two Crimean men put an end to their lives: a 76-year-old pensioner in Bakhchisaray and a 56-year-old man in Gursuf hanged themselves out of despair. Sixty cases of suicide have been recorded in the Crimea since the beginning of this year.