Crimean authorities said they had managed to partially reconnect the cities of Simferopol, Yalta and Saky using generators, the BBC reported.
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Russia’s Energy Ministry said nearly two million people had been left without power.
The year and a half has seen North Atlantic Treaty Organisation carry out feverish war preparations in Central and Eastern Europe, under the banner of countering Russia’s alleged violation of Ukrainian sovereignty over the peninsula.
Crimea relies heavily on imported power, producing only enough electricity locally to service a few 20 percent of its population.
The blackout forced the closure of a few 150 schools.
Earlier on Friday, unidentified saboteurs damaged two of Kherson’s four electricity transmission towers, prompting Crimean authorities to issue warnings of possible power cuts. Local news agencies reported interruptions in phone reception and Internet connection and restrictions on gasoline sales.
Russian Federation does not have a land border with Crimea, which gets about 70% of its electricity from Ukraine.
Russia’sEmergency Situations Ministry said it was rotating power supplies across the peninsula.
Crimean Tatars, an ethnic group native to the peninsula who oppose Russian rule, have been holding protests at the site of the broken power lines since Saturday, calling for a blockade of Crimea to protest at the jailing of dozens of activists.
Ukrainian energy officials said on Monday they were ready to fix the damage, but would only begin work after talks between the Ukrainian government and the activists.
The government said in a statement that two power lines bringing power from Ukraine to Crimea had been affected, leaving 1,896,000 people in the dark.
Pro-Ukrainian activists prevented repairs to sabotaged power lines leading to Crimea on Monday, keeping the Russian-annexed peninsula starved of electricity for a second day and tensions between Moscow and Kiev high. Several Crimean Tatars have reportedly been murdered, while others, as well as journalists, have allegedly been intimidated, kidnapped and beaten by Russian security services.
The Ukrainian government responded Monday by imposing a temporary ban on trucks ferrying goods to and from Crimea.
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Russian Federation remains the target of sanctions imposed by the European Union and United States following the Crimea annexation and Russia’s backing of separatists in the Ukrainian provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk.
