SIMFEROPOL, October 21 (RAPSI) – Crimean Prime Minister Sergei Aksyonov told his constitutes to hold back with paying off loans to the Ukrainian banks that ceased operations in Crimea, RIA Novosti reports on Tuesday .

Crimea became a part of Russia after a referendum held in March. A number of Ukrainian banks refused to pay out the money in the Crimean residents’ accounts. In total, more than 200,000 individuals were denied payments, with at least one third being clients of Privatbank, owned by Ukrainian mogul and statesman Ihor Kolomoisky.

“The process is being monitored, we’re working with the data, seeing how most of Ukrainian banks withdrew their records and refused to cooperate with the Deposit Insurance Agency. We’re trying to fix this manually, but no one has to make any transactions yet”, Aksyonov added.

According to the Crimean Prime Minister, no additional fines or collections will be imposed on citizens that took loans from Ukrainian banks before the referendum took place.

Aksyonov added that the money that the Crimeans will eventually repay could be used to reinforce the compensations for lost deposits in Ukrainian banks.