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The Crimean peninsula has now been without a reliable electricity source for the past three days after four power pylons were toppled by saboteurs in southern Ukraine over the weekend, close to the Crimea border.
As a result of the attacks the region's hospitals and its some 2 million inhabitants have been reliant on emergency generators to meet their basic power needs. While local schools have been closed.
NEWS: Crimea Declares State of Emergency Amid Massive Power Outage
Raisa Kazhyrnova, a Crimean resident told Reuters that the people are "outraged” by the attack and that residents on the peninsula cannot "wash properly” or use their electric cookers.
A bakery in the Russia annexed Crimea peninsula during the blackout. | Photo: Reuters
Reports in Russian paper the Kommersant suggest that the Kremlin could block the supply of natural gas and bituminous coal for power generation to Ukraine should power not be restored soon.
Russian Energy Minister Aleksandr Novak says that Ukrainian authorities haven’t repaired the power for “political reasons.”
“Extremists don’t allow workers to repair the damaged power stations. At the same time, it is strange that the authorities in Ukraine cannot provide access to the energy facilities,” Novak said.
Russia has blamed Ukrainian nationalists and Crimean Tatar activists for the pylon damage, who have been protesting on the road from mainland Ukraine to Crimea. Demonstrators, against the Russian ‘occupation’ of Crimea, have formed a blockade denying the delivery of food and other essential goods to the peninsula.
Ukraine counts the annexing of Crimea illegal and has officially labelled Russia as an "aggressor nation" and that its fight in the east as an "anti-terrorist operation."
The row could inflame further tensions in what remains a delicate region. Ukraine is technically in a Russian-backed cease-fire, which separatist pro-Russian rebels and government forces have mainly adhered to, but some fear this new row could put that at risk.
Russia is in the process of building a power bridge from the Russian mainland to Crimea to reduce the peninsula’s reliance on obtaining its energy from Ukraine. Currently, Crimea receives 70 percent of power from Ukraine. Russia hopes the bridge will be completed next summer and supply 800-840 MW of power per day.
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Crimea one step closer to energy independence from #Ukraine http://t.co/yozffXHR1W pic.twitter.com/w8px7ie6vc
— RT (@RT_com)
October 17, 2015
