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Sevastopol: why we removed these guides
Editorial Position
Updated:9 min1,727 words

Sevastopol: why we removed these guides

Here lay four texts about Sevastopol: a one-day walking route, a two-day route, a list of eleven city beaches, and a selection of fifteen activities for children with prices from 2021. All four have been removed in all language versions.

A direct answer to the query people come here with. Sevastopol is located on the Crimean Peninsula (Ukraine), temporarily occupied by Russia, and serves as the base and headquarters of Russia's Black Sea Fleet. The city routes and beach lists described not a resort but a naval base in a state of war, and that is exactly why we took them down. There are no roads, checkpoints, or stay programs in this text.

💡 At a glance:

  • which four pieces were removed and what their main content was
  • what is known about the military significance of the city and the entire peninsula
  • which figures we cite and who exactly is their source
  • which live seaside destinations on the site answer the same query
  • Last updated: 09/2026

Why we deleted these guides

The four texts formed a complete city guide set: two routes of different lengths, a beach list, and a family program. That is exactly the format a publication like ours writes about any coastal city. All four URLs now permanently redirect here.

The problem is not that the texts were bad, but what they left unsaid. None of them mentioned either the status of the territory or the purpose of the city. Meanwhile, the city continues to perform its primary function: Sevastopol is the base and headquarters of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, and on September 22, 2023, the headquarters building was struck by cruise missiles and partially destroyed (CNN, 23.09.2023). Less than two years passed between the publication of our beach list and that event, and the list remained online the entire time.

We should say something separately about the children's activities piece, and we say it without irony. It is the most vulnerable of the four texts and the most telling: a family format assumes that an adult brings a child to a place they consider safe. We cannot make that assessment, and we have no right to imply it through silence. That is why the text was removed entirely, not revised.

The decision also concerns the money a traveler leaves behind on a trip. Russia's budget increasingly relies on revenue beyond oil and gas. Their share has grown to roughly 78 percent, while the oil and gas share has fallen to roughly 22 percent (OSW Centre for Eastern Studies, 09.12.2025). The starting point for this decision is February 24, 2022 (UN press release GA/12407, 02.03.2022).

What is known about the military significance of the peninsula

Here, not only the substance matters but also the source of every figure, so we name it in the same sentence.

According to the Crimea Platform, an official forum initiated by Ukraine, the number of Russian military personnel on the peninsula has more than tripled compared to the period before the occupation, from 12,500 to roughly 40,000 people, with about 900 armored combat vehicles, more than 195 tanks, more than 283 artillery systems and multiple launch rocket systems, 50 helicopters, and 100 aircraft of various types deployed on the peninsula (Crimea Platform, militarization section).

According to an assessment by the ECFR think tank, Russia is modernizing former Soviet storage facilities on the peninsula, including a site near Krasnokamianka, which creates a risk of forward deployment of nuclear weapons (ECFR, "Waves of ambition"). This is an assessment by a research organization, not an established fact, and we present it exactly as such.

The militarization of the peninsula has been the subject of a separate annual UN General Assembly resolution since 2018. In December 2021, it was adopted by 63 votes to 22, with 55 abstentions (UN Digital Library). Sevastopol is not the only point in this picture: according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the largest military base on the occupied peninsula has become the Dzhankoi area, from which troops, weapons, and equipment are transferred (Ukranews).

We should say separately what is deliberately absent from this text. We do not provide information about the current situation in the city, how transport is operating, or what is open and closed today. The reason is not caution but methodology: we have no verified source for such data, and we do not consider reports without a named authority and date to be a source. A reader who comes looking for schedules or the current situation will find here only what is confirmed by a document, and that is a deliberate choice, not a gap.

What this means for you as an EU reader

Item

Status 09/2026

Source

Territory status

Part of Ukraine, temporarily occupied by Russia

A/RES/68/262

City's role

Base and headquarters of Russia's Black Sea Fleet; headquarters struck on 22.09.2023

CNN, 23.09.2023

Militarization of the peninsula

Subject of an annual UN General Assembly resolution; in December 2021, 63 votes in favor

UN Digital Library

Cruise ships

Entry into peninsula ports prohibited, except in emergencies

EUR-Lex, Art. 2d(2) of Regulation 692/2014

Ports and airports

Closed; consular protection unavailable

Auswärtiges Amt

Tourism-related services on the peninsula

Prohibited by Article 2d(1) of the same regulation, with no transition period

EUR-Lex

Travel to Russia in general

"Vor Reisen in die Russische Föderation wird gewarnt"

Auswärtiges Amt

Where to go instead

You came here looking for the sea, bays, naval history, and a walk through a city that looks like a postcard from every angle. The live sections of the site cover all of that: Greece with its island ports, Croatia with its fortified coastal towns, Montenegro with the Bay of Kotor, Malta with its harbor and forts, Cyprus and Turkey for warm seas. Naval history in these destinations is covered in detail and without a single caveat about territorial status.

The legal status of Crimea is covered in detail in our text on the status of the peninsula. We wrote about other resorts on the peninsula in our text on Yevpatoria and Alushta. Why we do not publish guides to Russia is explained in the general editorial text.

Where we stand

We believe that writing a city guide to an active naval base on occupied territory is unacceptable in any tone. In our assessment, even the usual defense of the travel genre, that describing a city and evaluating a state are different things, does not work here: a route along the Sevastopol waterfront passes by sites that we would have to stay silent about in the same text.

We decided not to replace these materials with "historical" versions. The city's history is vast and deserves a separate conversation, but that conversation should not look like a weekend itinerary.

We write about a state and its policies, not about people based on their passport. There are people in Russia who spoke out against the war and received prison sentences for it. Our decision not to publish guides to Russia is about money, sanctions, and reader safety, not nationality.

⁉️🤔 Frequently asked questions

Why do you link to a Ukrainian platform? Isn’t that a non-neutral source?

The Crimea Platform is named directly in the text, along with the fact that it is an official Ukrainian initiative, and the figures are presented as its data, not as our own calculation. Sources of other origins appear alongside it: a UN General Assembly resolution, the ECFR think tank, and a CNN report. The reader can see who is claiming what.

Are you presenting the nuclear deployment risk assessment as fact?

No, and we note that separately. It is an assessment by the ECFR research organization, and the text identifies it as an assessment. We call something an established fact only when it is confirmed by a document or a dated report.

People live in the city; they have beaches and playgrounds. Why can’t you write about that?

We make no claims about residents and do not evaluate their daily lives. We are responsible for our own format: a list of activities for children is a recommendation to visit, and we will not recommend visiting a naval base in a state of war.

What will happen to old links to these four texts?

They redirect here permanently in all language versions. A reader looking for a route or beaches gets an explanation, documents, and a list of destinations for which we have current material.

In short

Four Sevastopol articles have been removed in full: two routes, a beach list, and a children’s program. The city is located on a peninsula temporarily occupied by Russia and is the base and headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet, whose building was struck on September 22, 2023. The militarization of the peninsula is the subject of an annual UN General Assembly resolution, and troop and equipment figures are cited with reference to the Crimea Platform and with an ECFR assessment identified as an assessment. Services related to tourism activity and cruise ship calls are prohibited by EU Regulation 692/2014. The seaside destinations we continue to cover are listed above.

How you can help

We do not collect money and receive nothing from the links below. These are official websites of organizations working with the consequences of the war:

Sources

Link check dates: 03.09.2026.

Publication date: September 3, 2026. Last updated: September 3, 2026.

tourism.com.de Editorial Team
tourism.com.de Editorial TeamTravel editorial team: research, fact-checking, updates→ All publications

A small editorial team writing guides for independent travel. We travel ourselves, but we haven’t been everywhere, so we check prices, opening hours and how to get there against official sources.