The Black Sea peninsula has been hit by power cuts after unknown attackers blew up pylons at the weekend, cutting power lines from Ukraine, which supplies most of its electricity.
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An office administrator lights up a candle in Simferopol on November 22, 2015. Russian authorities also introduced a state of emergency in Crimea, the Emergencies Ministry spokesman said. “We aren’t satisfied with today’s status quo, when an occupying power neglects the basic rights of the Crimean Tatar people”, he said.
A Ukrainian police representative from Kherson region said police had blocked off the area surrounding the damaged pylons yesterday to allow repairs.
The authorities rushed to connect hospitals and other vital infrastructure to reserve power stations and generators late on Saturday after the four main transmission lines from Ukraine were cut off in an apparent act of sabotage. Energy Minister Volodymyr Demchshyn said on Monday it was up to the Ukrainian political leadership to decide if the contract would be extended next year.
Officials in Ukraine said some power could be restored in 24 hours and all four destroyed pylons restored within two or three days, but they said unidentified demonstrators were preventing fix crews from gaining access to the site. 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.
“As of 1 pm (1000 GMT), 1,641,000 people have been left without electricity”, and 150 schools have no power, Russia’s energy ministry said.
Road and rail traffic to and from Crimea has been disrupted since Ukrainian nationalists and Crimean Tatars imposed a border blockade in September. Russian forces annexed Crimea in March 2014, during Ukraine’s crisis.
A Ukrainian lawmaker close to the circle of Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said of the Crimea blackout: “This was all done with the tacit consent of the country’s whole leadership”.
Goods from Russian Federation can only be ferried to Crimea across a strip of water called the Kerch Strait.
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Disruption blamed on attacks on power pylons means large parts of region annexed by Russian Federation are without electricity. Local news agencies reported interruptions in phone reception and Internet connection and restrictions on gasoline sales. The decision out of Kiev to push for trade restrictions follows a ruling made from Moscow last week that will see to it that Russian foods are banned from being imported to Ukraine effective the start of next year.
