The Russian-backed Crimean government has already said it fears the state of emergency could last until late December, when Russia will finally be able to trial its energy link with Crimea, which is now under construction.
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The Ukrainian government dismissed as “absolutely groundless” suggestions, made by two Ukrainian lawmakers to Reuters, that Kiev might be tacitly backing the activists. The annexation prompted the USA and Europe to impose economic sanctions against Moscow and sparked outcry among pro-Ukrainian activists, particularly in the politically active Crimean Tatar community, who say Kiev isn’t doing enough to protect its citizens in Crimea or to return the peninsula to Ukrainian control.
The Energy Ministry said it was monitoring the energy situation in Crimea around the clock and was organizing supplementary supplies of gasoline and diesel fuel.
Images on social media show Ukrainian flags on some damaged pylons – and Crimean Tatar flags on others.
Ukraine’s Prime Minister Yatsenyuk for his part said that Kiev would respond to any ban from Russian Federation with a retaliatory measure.
Ethnic Tatars from Crimea and some Ukrainian radical groups blocked Ukrenergo’s fix teams as well as cargo trucks to Crimea, demanding an economic blockade of the peninsula until Russian Federation releases political prisoners.
Two of the four transmission towers in Kherson, Ukraine, were damaged on Friday.
Most of Crimea’s two million people have been hit by the power cut.
The Russian parliament voted overwhelmingly in March 2014 to annex the largely Russian-speaking Crimea, just weeks after pro-Western Ukrainian protests in Kyiv forced Russia-leaning President Viktor Yanukovych from office.
Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman, said Russian Federation hoped Kiev would take “vigorous steps” to restore Crimea’s power supplies.
According to news agency Flash Crimea, the prices of candles and generators on the peninsula have more than doubled since the blackout began, while Interfax reports that education officials have told schools to shorten classes.
The issue of supplies coming from Ukraine has been a repeated source of tension in recent months, with Tatar and other activists also trying in September to blockade the main road leading to Crimea from Ukraine, which claims Crimea and still supplies some food and utilities to the peninsula.
“This was all done with the tacit consent of the country’s whole leadership”, said a lawmaker close to the circle of Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk, referring to the Crimea blackout.
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Sevastopol is getting three hours’ supply, followed by a six-hour cut; in Simferopol residents have three-hour power cuts three times a day.
