MOSCOW - The emergency situation because of power supply to Crimea that occurred after all four electrical transmission lines (ETL) in Ukraine's Kherson region that supply the peninsula were blown up may continue until the commissioning of the first phase of the power bridge across the Strait of Kerch expected on Dec. 22, Crimean leader Sergei Aksionov said.
“Given the present political situation in Ukraine, which has been shaped over the last few months by those Crimean people participating in the blockade and trying to create a certain destructive situation in Crimea, we believe that we have to prepare for the worst-case scenario, and in particular this one: the Emergency Situation period will last until the moment that the first phase of the power bridge across the Strait of Kerch is commissioned, until Dec. 22. But it is not 100% [certain],” Aksionov said in a statement, the text of which is available to Interfax.
Aksionov described the blasting of the ETLs in southern Ukraine as a terrorist attack. “The Russian Government is undertaking every effort to supply electric power properly. Unfortunately, we have to inform our citizens that this period is likely to last,” he said.
However, he admitted that there are sufficient supplies of food, medications and fuels in Crimea now. “There is no rush there,” he said.
Two towers in the Henichesk and Chaplynka districts supporting the ETL that connects mainland Ukraine with Crimea were damaged on Nov. 20. Combatants of Right Sector, the organization banned in Russia, and members of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People put the damaged ETL towers under guard in order to obstruct their repairs. After their clash with policemen who accompanied the technicians arriving in place to earth the towers, the activists retreated and allowed the technical team to carry out repairs. Late on Saturday night, Ilya Kiva, head of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry’s drug crime prevention department, reported that the repair earthing works on the damaged ETL near Chaplynka had been completed.
In the small hours of November 22, the damaged ETL towers were repeatedly damaged by an explosion, which resulted in the disruption of power supplies to Crimea.
Crimea has 366 MW of its own generating capacity, including 232 MW at mobile generators. Consumption on the peninsula is limited to 360 MW.
The Krymenergo power utility has so far restored power supplies to some consumers, using 643 diesel generators with a combined capacity of 82.5 MW. Efforts to restore power supplies continue.
