Taurida Governorate

The bodies of four Turkish sailors, who died on two ships which caught fire in the Kerch Strait, have arrived in Istanbul by plane.

Vladimir Varimez from the village of Bankovka is one of the 24 sailors who were arrested after three Ukrainian ships tried to cross the Kerch Strait, bTV reported.

The information was confirmed by the mayor of the village Viktor Genchev.

He added that Vladimir's father is still in Bankovka, but it is possible at some point to leave for Sevastopol to try to meet his son.

In the heyday of his favorite Crimea club Tavriya Simferopol, supporter Gennady Malakhov went all over Ukraine, watched home games at a packed stadium and even saw the team compete in the Champions League in the early 1990s.

The well-known Serbian director Emir Kusturica arrived today on the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russia from Ukraine, to give a concert with his group "Smoking forbidden".They will play together in Yalta.

"I know there are wonderful landscapes and pretty girls in Yalta," he told journalists on his arrival at the regional capital, Simferopol, quoted by RIA Novosti.

Russian construction workers are already building a bridge that will link mainland Russia to the Crimean peninsula which the country incorporated last year.

The news was first announced by a Crimean association called "Simferopol" (the administrative center of Crimea) which posted pictures of the works on Facebook.

Russia on Feb. 5 defied anger by unveiling a controversial monument to Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, Britain's Winston Churchill and US President Franklin Roosevelt at their fateful meeting in Crimea in 1945.