State of emergency declared in Crimea after electricity pylons “blown up”

Trade has hardly been the main topic of discussion during the last few days of disputes, however; Crimea is now in the midst of a national emergency after several electrical towers were destroyed over the weekend, creating blackout conditions for upwards of 2 million residents of the peninsula who largely depend on mainland Ukraine for power and other utility services.

Last Sunday, Crimea switched to autonomous reserve power after transmission towers in the adjacent Ukrainian Kherson region were blown up, causing a blackout.

On Saturday, the pylons were the scene of violent clashes between activists from the Right Sector nationalist movement and paramilitary police, Ukrainian media reported.

“We are prepared to fix the power lines within 72 hours”, Ukraine’s Energy Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn told the Interfax news agency.

The Ukrainian government responded Monday by imposing a temporary ban on trucks ferrying goods to and from Crimea.

Crimean Tatars made up about 12 per cent of the region’s population before annexation, but up to 15,000 are believed to have left since, citing official harassment and intimidation. Roughly 1.6 million people have been left without power in the region, which was annexed a year ago by Moscow during an armed intervention.

The Ukrainian president reiterates that determining the model of further relations with Crimea is now a priority of the public administration.

After its accession into the Russian Federation past year, Russia foresaw the danger of having Crimea dependent on Ukraine for electricity, and has been in the process of laying underwater cables from the Russian mainland.

Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Crimea, Mikhail Sheremet, said that electricity supplies had been resumed to nearly all cities of the peninsula.

Novak said Crimea’s local power plants are now covering 35-40 percent of the energy needs of the peninsula.

“Negotiations regarding the resumption of electricity deliveries [to Crimea] are possible after our political prisoners are freed”, he said in an interview with the online news portal Liga.

Russian and Crimean authorities have implemented a state of emergency, ordering the closure of schools and work stoppages on Monday.

“I can not rule out a link between [the perpetrators] and the authorities in Kiev”, Sergei Tsekov said. “We want to end the occupation of Crimea”, said Refat Chubarov, one of the leaders of the community. According to the official, the amount of fuel to generate electric power on the peninsula will be enough at least for one month. A few 150 schools were also without power, the BBC said.