The four trunk lines running from Ukraine to Crimea were all damaged, and two districts in the Ukrainian region of Kherson were also without electricity, Volodymyr Demchyshyn, the energy minister of Ukraine, said in a statement.
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On Saturday, the pylons were the scene of violent clashes between activists from the Right Sector nationalist movement and paramilitary police, Ukrainian media reported.
It was not immediately clear who destroyed the main electric pylons on Friday and Sunday, but the blasted away stump of at least one near the demonstrators was wrapped in the distinctive Crimean Tatar flag, blue with a yellow trident in the upper left-hand corner.
Mustafa Dzhemilev, a senior Crimean Tatar politician, said the process of restoring power to Crimea could start only after “political prisoners” on the peninsula were released.
Moscow may seek reprisals as Ukraine delays restoring all power supplies, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Tuesday.
He said the Tartars welcomed the decision by the Ukrainian government to restrict the flow of goods to Crimea, meaning the activists wouldn’t have to man road blocks in icy weather.
Ukraine implemented a boycott on cargo traffic to Crimea as the region enters another day of blackouts caused by the sabotage of the Ukrainian electricity grid.
Crimean Tatars are an ethnic group native to the peninsula who are against Russian rule.
Crimean authorities said hospitals were working from backup generators.
“Teams are ready to fix the consequences of the blasts in the course of four days”, said Igor Boska, the regional head of Ukrenergo, the national power supply company.
The leadership of Crimea declared Monday due to dire straits on the nonworking day.
The move by Russian Federation was met with worldwide condemnation and sanctions against Russian Federation.
The activists have staked out the border between mainland Ukraine and Crimea since September, attempting to stop commercial trucks from passing.
The new spike in tensions between Moscow and Kiev – which have been at daggers drawn since Moscow snatched Crimea in March 2014 – comes despite a dip in fighting in the conflict in the east of Ukraine thanks to a shaky truce between government troops and rebels the West says are armed and backed by Russian Federation. Russia’s been planning several projects to increase electrical generation in Crimea as a way of making it less vulnerable to disruptions of power from Ukraine.
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The annexation plunged relations between Kiev and Moscow into a crisis deepened by a rebellion by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
