Ukraine halts goods deliveries to Crimea

Ukraine temporarily suspended cargo traffic to Crimea as protesters blocked authorities’ efforts to restore power to the peninsula after explosions plunged nearly two million people into darkness on Sunday.

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

The annexation was opposed by many Tatars, a Turkic-speaking Muslim community with a long history in Crimea, and they have since held numerous protests to complain of discrimination and intimidation which they say is meant to silence dissent.

The government imposed a 10 p.m. curfew on restaurants and other entertainment sites.

Ukrainian police have also started a criminal case into the bombing under the article of “inflicting damages to state property”, and have also started separate cases against the activists of the blockade who attacked policemen and obstructed the work of journalists. “We aren’t satisfied with today’s status quo, when an occupying power neglects the basic rights of the Crimean Tatar people”, he said.

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

Crimean Tatar activists accuse Russian Federation of abusing Tatar rights and denying them a voice since a pro-Moscow government was installed in Crimea.

Moscow and Kiev appeared to lurch towards a fresh trade war on Monday, as Ukraine suspended supplies of food and other commercial goods to Crimea and a senior minister suggested permanently cutting the peninsular off from electricity supplies.

But there is still no land link between Russian Federation and Crimea, and Ukraine supplies about 70 percent of the peninsula’s electricity.

It was not clear who carried out the attacks but several pictures of the damage showed Ukrainian flags attached to the wrecked pylons.

“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. Some 150 schools were also without power, the BBC said.

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

“This is not about the pylons that were destroyed, it is about our position”, Mr Avakov said, calling for a move that would effectively endorse an unofficial blockade of the Russian-controlled region. “The situation in Crimea is hard but not critical”, Kozak said.

The peninsula has 29 days of stocks but officials promised rationing of electricity to preserve supplies.

Crimean authorities said they had managed to partially reconnect the cities of Simferopol, Yalta and Sevastopol using generators.

Local officials were less sanguine.