Crimea switches to Moscow time

MOSCOW -- Crimea switched to Moscow time on Sunday by moving the clocks two hours forward after the peninsula was taken from Ukraine by Russia.

Crimea crisis

According to the Crimean parliament, the schedules of Crimea's railway, water transport, air and telecommunications services are all switching to Moscow time on March 30 in line with an earlier reached resolution.

"The change is to proceed smoothly without financial or other losses," Interfax news agency quoted Crimea's first Deputy Prime Minister Rustam Temirgaliyev as saying.

Crimea's Health Ministry said due to Crimea's geographical location, its darkness falls earlier and the dawn comes earlier than that in Kiev, so the time switch will have no negative impact on local people's life.

"If any impact is to be experienced, it will only be positive," according to the ministry.

Also on Sunday, all of Ukrainian interior troops were removed from Crimea.

According to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry's press service, some 1,100 servicemen based on the Crimean peninsula have been "redeployed to the continent."