Crimean residents travel to Russia for cheaper groceries and fuel as high prices, fuel shortages, and business closures expose the occupation authorities’ inability to meet basic needs.
Residents of temporarily occupied Crimea travel to Russian cities to buy groceries, fuel, and goods ordered from online marketplaces, believing they can save money this way. On social media, they compare prices, post receipts, and even offer one-day shopping trips across the Crimean Bridge.
The Office of the President of Ukraine’s Representative in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea links this trend to high prices, a fuel crisis, and the occupation authorities’ inability to meet the population’s basic needs. How shopping outside the peninsula has become a way to save money — in this report by Suspilne Crimea.
Crimean residents are sharing their impressions of prices in stores in Russian cities on social media. One woman from the peninsula said she was surprised by the cost of goods at a store in Anapa.
“Look, cream costs the same as milk. Milk is more expensive back home. In Crimea, you can’t buy anything for 1,000 rubles, absolutely nothing,” says the woman in one video.
Due to the price difference, people on social media have started offering organized trips across the Kerch Strait Bridge. The aim is to stock up on groceries, collect orders from the Wildberries and Ozon online marketplaces, and return to the peninsula.
Crimean residents travel to the nearest Russian cities, compare prices, show their receipts, and share their shopping experiences. Some video creators ironically remark that an ordinary trip to a grocery store in Crimea has turned into a major expense.
“Crimeans are so wealthy that they can afford to travel to a neighboring region to buy groceries. After all, here, shopping for an ordinary basket of groceries is sometimes seen as an investment in your own future,” says one of the video creators.
Demand for such trips is already being turned into a separate service. Social media users are offering one-day tours across the Kerch Strait Bridge, allowing participants to collect orders from online marketplaces, visit major supermarket chains, and return to Crimea. One advertisement lists an organizational fee of 2,500 rubles (UAH 1,300) per person.
Crimean residents explain these shopping trips by pointing to price differences. Video creators cite varying savings, ranging from 30% to as much as 1.5 times.
Olha Kuryshko, the Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, links this trend to high food prices and the situation on the peninsula’s fuel market.
“Essentially, this means that due to high food prices and fuel speculation on the Crimean Peninsula, people decide to travel to the Russian Federation. First, they go to Krasnodar Krai, where they buy groceries, get petrol, and return to the temporarily occupied peninsula,” Olha Kuryshko said.
According to the Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, these trips have resulted from problems that the occupation authorities have been unable to resolve.
“The Representative’s Office has been consistently documenting these trends, but there is a chain of cause and effect that has led to this type of tourism. It was caused, among other things, by the fuel crisis that began on the Crimean Peninsula in late spring and the occupation authorities’ inability to regulate the situation, establish communication with the local population, and meet their basic needs,” Kuryshko said.
Meanwhile, Crimean residents are also reporting store closures on the peninsula on social media. According to them, rental notices for commercial premises are appearing increasingly often, even in central areas of cities.
“At the same time, you can see stores closing, with ‘For Rent’ signs everywhere. For example, this was the best place of 2025, and I really wanted to visit, but I didn’t get the chance. And this is all happening right in the city center. You can imagine what things are like on the outskirts,” one local resident said.
Olha Kuryshko notes that shopping trips mean some of the money that could otherwise stay with local businesses is instead spent in Krasnodar Krai and other Russian regions. In her view, the occupation authorities cannot simply ban these trips, as doing so would contradict the propaganda narrative that Crimea is “inseparable from Russia.”
