Russian Federation threatens to cut gas to Ukraine

Russian Federation staunchly opposes the European Union trade pact and has threatened to counter with economic warfare policies of its own, including the imposition of a “full food embargo” against Kiev. To cut the dependence from Kiev, Russian Federation is now building a power bridge from the mainland to the peninsula.

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.

While the Ukrainian Interior Ministry still hadn’t identified suspects in the explosions, pro-Ukrainian activists-many of them from the minority Muslim community of Crimean Tatars-continued to block fix works on the pylons Monday. However, due to the shortage of electric power generation, electricity and water supplies to consumers will be interrupted according to a special schedule.

“Russia delivers coal to the Ukrainian energy sector”, the minister said. He was unlikely to take kindly to Ukraine disrupting life for all of Crimea, however, given that he has made its absorption into Russian Federation something of a personal project.

The Ukrainian government Monday abruptly banned freight traffic to the Crimean peninsula as tensions with Russian Federation over the disputed territory have reignited into threats of a full-blown trade war.

Ukraine has ramped up pressure on Russian Federation by banning goods deliveries to Crimea, the peninsula annexed by Moscow previous year, and by failing to restore power after electricity pylons were blown up.

“I would like to emphasise that Ukraine will respond in similar ways”, he said.

President Vladimir Putin, who was traveling to a meeting of gas exporters in Iran, did not immediately comment.

“There are different options” to retaliate, he said.

“This was all done with the tacit consent of the country’s whole leadership”, said a lawmaker close to the circle of Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk, referring to the Crimea blackout.

Kiev has appeared ambivalent about the recent protests.

Mustafa Dzhemilev, a senior Crimean Tatar politician, said the process of restoring power to Crimea could start only after “political prisoners” on the peninsula were released.

The Ukrainian government has denied the accusation as “absolutely groundless”. Ukraine has said that repairs to the power lines, once they begin, will take 72 hours to complete. In particular, it is dependent on Ukraine for most of its electricity.

As “Armenpress” reports referring to DefenseNwes.com U.S. troops had already deployed in small numbers to Ukraine to train national guard forces, but under a plan first announced in July they are now helping regular military units. “So it’s them to blame”.