State of Emergency in Crimea After Explosions Cut Power
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KYIV—Authorities declared a state of emergency on Sunday in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula annexed by Russia
last year, after pylons supplying energy to the territory from Ukraine were blown up.
Russia’sEnergy Ministry said almost two million people had been left without power. The local energy ministry said
that between 20% and 30% of the peninsula was supplied with electricity, almost half of that by generators.
Russian media outlets reported that pylons in the southern Ukrainian region of Kherson had been blown up by pro-
Ukrainian activists. The Russian ministry didn’t mention the cause of the outage. The Ukrainian Interior Ministry
confirmed that the pylons had been blown up and pledged to help facilitate repair work.
Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine last year, and the territory still receives 85% of its water and 80% of its
electricity from mainland Ukraine. The U.S. and Europe imposed trade sanctions on Moscow in response to the annexation.
Since September, pro-Ukrainian activists—many of them from the minority Muslim community of Crimean
Tatars—have attempted to blockade trucks transporting goods from mainland Ukraine to Crimea. Goods from Russia can
only reach Crimea directly across a thin strip of water called the Kerch Strait.
Ukraine’s interior ministry also said it was investigating complaints that a police officer had been wounded during an
attempted blockade near Crimea on Saturday, though it didn’t confirm that the incident had taken place.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires 11-22-152025ET Copyright (c) 2015 Dow Jones Company, Inc.