Russian Federation may consider response measures in connection with Crimea blackout

Pylons supplying electricity to Crimea from southern Ukraine were blown up over the weekend, leaving much of the peninsula without power. “Locally generated electric energy meets the peninsula’s needs by 30%; all socially important facilities, the airport and transport infrastructure are operating normally”, the deputy prime minister said.

A Crimean Tatar activist told Ukraine’s TV news broadcaster 112 Ukrayina that Russian Federation must release “political prisoners” and let their leader Mustafa Dzhemilev return to Crimea in exchange for repairs to the power lines.

Russian Federation opposes the Ukraine-EU trade deal and has threatened to introduce trade restrictions against Ukraine if Kiev implements the pact before reaching an agreement over the issue with Moscow.

Officials said there was enough fuel to keep the gas- and diesel-powered generators running.

“By the initiative of Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the Ukrainian government is temporarily prohibiting cargo traffic between Ukraine and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea”.

More than 1.6 million people are without power, water supplies to high-rise buildings have stopped and cable and mobile Internet is down.

The organization Human Rights in Crimea said Sunday a few hospitals on the peninsula could only bring power to emergency and operating rooms. Several Crimean Tatars have reportedly been murdered, while others, as well as journalists, have allegedly been intimidated, kidnapped and beaten by Russian security services.

It’s being suggested Ukrainian nationalists are behind the attack on Crimea’s power supplies.

On Saturday, transmission towers in Ukraine’s Kherson region were exploded, leading to a power supply shortage the region as well as a blackout in Crimea. The Ukrainian Interior Ministry later said that the power lines were blown up.

Coming amid unprecedented geopolitical tensions and of growing demands for escalation against Russian Federation from U.S. and European ruling circles, the sabotage has the hallmarks of a deliberate provocation aiming to collectively punish the Crimean population, which voted overwhelmingly to secede from the US-installed, far-right Kiev regime and rejoin Russian Federation last spring. Representatives of the Ukrainian energy industry promised to restore electricity supply in the coming days.

The United States has begun training Ukrainian troops and special operations forces in an attempt to aid the war-ravaged country to protect its borders against pro-Russia forces, the Pentagon says.