Tourism services and entry to Crimea
Crimea and Sevastopol are Ukrainian territory, temporarily occupied by the Russian Federation. This page sets out who, under EU law, may not provide tourism services there, and how Ukrainian law regulates entry. It is a summary with links to the acts, not a substitute for their text.
The EU prohibition
Since 20 December 2014 it has been prohibited to provide services directly related to tourism activities in Crimea or Sevastopol. The rule is Article 2d of Council Regulation (EU) No 692/2014. The regulation itself was adopted on 23 June 2014 and at first concerned imports of goods. Article 2d was added by Regulation (EU) No 1351/2014 of 18 December 2014. It was published on 19 December 2014 and entered into force the next day.
A cruise ship is also prohibited from calling at the peninsula's ports listed in Annex III. The ban covers ships flying the flag of an EU member state, ships of an EU shipowner, and ships whose operation is the responsibility of an EU operator. The exception is a call for maritime safety in an emergency, with notice to the competent authority.
The regulation applies in the territory of the EU, on aircraft and ships under the jurisdiction of a member state, to nationals of member states wherever they are, to companies incorporated under the law of a member state, and to any company for the part of its business done in the EU. Penalties are set by the member state (Article 8). This is a direct prohibition, not an automatic entry on a sanctions list.
Entry under Ukrainian law
Law of Ukraine No. 1207-VII of 15 April 2014 on the rights of citizens and the legal regime of the temporarily occupied territory sets the entry rules. A citizen of Ukraine enters and leaves through the checkpoints with a document that proves identity and citizenship. A foreigner or a stateless person may enter only with a special permit, and only through those checkpoints.
Neither entry from the territory of the Russian Federation (the Kerch bridge, Simferopol airport, the seaports) nor the land route through the temporarily occupied south of Ukraine passes through those checkpoints. Such entry can bar later entry to Ukraine.
Article 332-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine punishes a breach of this order only when it is committed in order to harm the interests of the state. The article does not call the crossing itself a crime without that purpose.
What Ukrainian law does not say
There is no rule under which a tour operator registered on government-controlled territory automatically commits a crime by the mere fact of organizing a trip.
Article 13 of the same Law No. 1207-VII is about something else. Economic activity by a legal entity or a sole trader whose location is the temporarily occupied territory is allowed only after the tax address is moved to another part of Ukraine. A transaction to which such an entity is a party is void.
Law of Ukraine No. 1644-VII of 14 August 2014 on sanctions allows the National Security and Defence Council to apply sanctions to named persons and companies. That is a separate decision about specific parties, not an automatic consequence of organizing a tour.
A rule that is no longer in force
Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 1035 of 16 December 2015 prohibited, for the period of occupation, the supply of goods, works and services from the temporarily occupied territory to the rest of Ukraine and in the other direction. It lost force on 23 September 2023 under Resolution No. 1000 of 15 September 2023. Resolution No. 1035 cannot be cited as a current ban on tours.