Power was restored in Russian-occupied Crimea on the evening of June 13 after a blackout earlier in the day hit all of the peninsula’s major cities, according to reports in Russian and other media.
The blackout, which hit at 4 p.m. after a power station in Russia supplying electricity to the peninsula broke down, lasted for about an hour.
According to numerous media reports and information from Crimean power companies, the outage affected Yalta, Simferopil, Yevpatoria, Bakhchysarai and other cities on the peninsula. The blackout disrupted the services of the two mobile carriers that operate in Russian-occupied Crimea, MTS and Win mobile.
Social media users reported failed attempts to call relatives in Crimea, and supermarkets and cafes being left in darkness. Trolley buses were left stranded in the middle of roads.
Russia’s Kubanenergo, which started to supply power to Crimea in 2016, confirmed that “a mass technical shut-down occurred on the line.”
“We were to ascertain the reasons within two hours,” a representative of Kubanenergo told Crimean media outlet Kryminform.
The head of the occupying authorities in Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov, has also confirmed that the whole peninsula had suffered a power blackout, and said it had been due to a power surge.
“The protection system snapped into action due to a power surge at the Taman substation (in Russia),” Aksyonov wrote on Facebook shortly after the blackout hit. “The power supply will be restored within the next three hours. Please remain calm.”
Just one hour later Kryminform reported that the Crimean power grid had been reconnected to the Taman substation and that the public would have electricity back soon. Correspondents of Radio Liberty in Crimea then reported that the power was back in Sevastopol and Simferopol.
Crimea was also left without power for several hours last summer, in July 2017. At that time, the Russian Energy Ministry said the outage was due to “abnormal heat” in Russia’s Krasnodar region.
Ukraine used to provide about 70 percent of all of Crimea’s electricity, but in 2015 the transmission lines to the peninsula from the mainland in Kherson Oblast were blown up by persons unknown, leaving the peninsula with acute power shortages and frequent outages.
After that incident, Ukraine stopped providing power to Russian-occupied Crimea altogether.
