Crimea official says Ukraine has cut off power again, Interfax reports
Another local official had previously said lines carried by the downed pylon had been supplying Crimea with around 250 megawatts a day.
A survey ordered by Vladimir Putin shows Crimea residents would rather break an electricity contract with Kyiv, than sign one calling the peninsula part of Ukraine – even if it means further blackouts that began when a pylon bearing power lines was blown up.
Kirill Moskalenko, a spokesman of the governor of Sevastopol city, said Ukraine has cut off the Kakhovka-Titan line to Crimea.
“According to preliminary conclusions of experts of the counter-explosive service the pylon was damaged in an explosion”, reads in a statement of the Communication Department of the Main Department of the National Police in Kherson region released on Thursday.
Crimea, which Russian Federation seized from Ukraine in March past year, has suffered repeated power cuts since the annexation, underlining its reliance on Ukraine for electricity and fuelling a downwards spiral in relations between Moscow and Kyiv.
“It is fairly certain that the president will decide not to sign the contract on those conditions”, Dmitry Peskov, Mr Putin’s press secretary, said after the results of the poll were announced on Friday.
To support the Kremlin’s apparent decision not to renew the contract, Putin commissioned an opinion poll to determine whether Crimean residents want to be a part of Ukraine to continue getting power supplies from the Ukrainian company Ukrenegro.
Before the secession and power cuts that followed, Ukraine had supplied nearly three quarters of Crimea’s electricity.
Russian Federation then boosted its own supplies to the region and flew in emergency generators, while power from Ukraine was partially restored only after just over two weeks. “The fact that power cuts occurred at night when electricity consumption was minimal in the district made it possible for us to avoid any major problems here”, Zahorulko noted.
