Russian Federation in tit-for-tat response to Crimea blackout
Russia’s Energy Ministry said emergency electricity supplies had been turned on for critical needs in Crimea and that mobile gas turbine generators were being used.
A state of emergency was imposed on Sunday and Monday was declared a non-working day.
“Currently, the workers are clearing the territory and dismantling the destroyed pylon”.
The activists, Tatars themselves, said they had no idea how the pylons had been knocked down.
Ukraine’s state energy company, Ukrenergo, said the damage to the pylons was caused by “shelling or the use of explosive devices”.
Ukraine’s Prime Minister Yatsenyuk for his part said that Kyiv would respond to any ban from Russian Federation with a retaliatory measure.
The obstacles have prevented road cargo from reaching Crimea from Ukraine, and on Monday Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk recommended the government officially suspend cargo shipments to the peninsula following a similar statement by President Petro Poroshenko.
The authorities in Crimea, which depends on Kyiv for most of its power supplies, have suggested Ukraine was involved in the blast.
The activists have staked out the border between mainland Ukraine and Crimea since September, attempting to stop commercial trucks from passing.
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. The decision out of Kyiv 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.
Putin stated the necessity of ensuring non-stop provisional power generator operation on the Crimean Peninsula.
The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) is investigating the recent bombings of the Ukrainian power grid that have led to blackouts in the Crimean Republic, chief Crimean prosecutor Natalya Poklonskaya has told reporters.
Residents of the Crimean peninsula stayed at home yesterday as they endured a life without electricity after an attack on the power supply by unidentified assailants left most of Crimea’s two million people in the dark.
“The worst case scenario is that this period continues until the first cable of the energy bridge across the Kerch Strait is completed”.
Engineers began laying undersea cables from the Russian mainland a year ago, in a construction effort created to ease that reliance.
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