Saboteurs blew up the main power lines leading into Crimea early Sunday, plunging the disputed peninsula into darkness and prompting the Russian government to impose a state of emergency there.
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All four power lines were cut, reports said, leaving the region’s two million inhabitants without electricity.
But for now, the peninsula which Russia seized a year ago depends on Ukraine for at least 70 percent of its electricity and the first phase of the Russian project, which will ease dependence on Ukraine, is not due to come online until next month.
As a reminder, on Sunday night, pylons of power lines delivering electricity to Crimea were blown up in the southern Kherson region. The Tatar activists who blockaded the location stated they would forestall repairs until Russian Federation let go political prisoners & allowed global organizations to monitor human rights in Crimea.
Ilya Kiva, a senior officer in the Ukrainian police who was at the scene, said on his Facebook page that the towers had been “blown up”.
“Speaking about the embargo, I would like to make it clear that Russian threats to introduce an embargo on Ukrainian goods will face the same response from the Ukrainian authorities”, he said.
The ministry said that a state of emergency had been declared in Crimea.
This follows violent clashes between Crimean Tatar activists and paramilitary police at the site yesterday, according to Ukrainian media reporters. Meanwhile, the Right Sector and Crimean Tatar “activists” have been attempting to block repairs. 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.
“We are outraged by the cut-off… because a lot of us have electric cookers, we can’t wash properly at the moment… our fridges are defrosting”, Sevastopol resident Raisa Kazhyrnova told Reuters news agency.
Most of Crimea still gets its electric power from the Ukrainian mainland.
Crimea’s leader Sergei Aksyonov claimed Ukraine’s officials were complicit in the blackout. 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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In Ukraine’s eastern Donbass region government troops are battling pro-Russian separatist rebels, which Ukraine accuses Russia of backing.
