On November 20th all populated localities of Crimea were left without electricity that was supplied to the peninsula from Ukraine by four lines, as director of the “Krymenergo”, a local power utility company, Viktor Plakida stated. “The Crimea is in blackout, I cannot give the details yet,” he said.
About 1.9 million residents of the Crimea were left without electricity completely as a result of undermining of transmission towers in Kherson region. The fact of the power outage was confirmed in the Crimea Regional Ministry of Emergency Situations.
“There is no electricity, no water in Kerch now. Only a singe petrol station is working there, citizens are standing in a queue for bread. People are buying candles, food, and generators,” told us one of Crimea residents.
“We have no light, no water, no heating. We have neither Internet nor television, so we don’t even know what is happening and what we should expect. People have to rely on gossips. There is panic in the town, people regret turning “Russians”, said Svetlana Dubinina, a resident of Feodosia.
Now the peninsula is trying to use alternative power supply sources which should be enough for one month, as the Ministry of Energy of Russia reported. Residents were asked not to include space heaters and follow the schedule of rolling blackouts. Gaining energy independence from Ukraine could take at least a year for the peninsula.
“Unfortunately, we couldn’t avoid blackouts. In the nearest future the population would get known with the schedule”, said the First Deputy Prime Minister of the Crimea Mikhail Sheremet, who heads the emergency response commission.
The Press Secretary of “Kharkivoblenergo” Vladimir Skichko stressed that no instructions concerning blackouts in Kharkiv region has not been given yet by the National Energy Company “Ukrenergo” concerning the emergency situation in the Crimea.