Russia is cutting off gas supplies to Ukraine this week and could also stop providing coal to the nation as a dispute over a blackout in Crimea escalates.
Crimea, the subject of an ongoing quarrel between the countries, has been relying on emergency power generators since its main supply was attacked over the weekend, Reuters reported. It’s not known who was responsible for attacking the power supply, and the New York Times reported that millions of residents of the peninsula are still without electricity.
The BBC reported there are also water shortages in Crimea, and the Ukraine has stopped delivering goods to the peninsula in the Black Sea.
Tensions between the two nations have been high since Russia annexed the peninsula last year. Russia doesn’t border the territory by land. Ukraine does.
Protesters are preventing repair work from being done. The New York Times report indicates the activists — Crimean Tatars and Ukranian nationalists — want Russia to release political prisoners and permit global organizations to review human rights in the territory.
According to Reuters, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak claimed that the Ukraine was not doing enough to help crews restore power to the territory. He called the inaction a crime and politically motivated.
Ukraine lawmakers, speaking to Reuters, called suggestions that the government was backing the protesters “absolutely groundless.”
The Russian-annexed nation of Crimea is under a state of emergency after four electricity transmission towers located in Ukraine were damaged by bombs in two different attacks. Approximately 1.6 million people are without power.
At this time, officials are unclear on who attacked the pylons, but Russian authorities stated it was “an act of terrorism,” according to Voice of America News. And while Russian officials didn’t directly place blame, they implied Ukrainian nationalists may have been behind the attacks. The attacked pylons are located in Ukraine, where Crimea gets the majority of its electricity supplies.
The attacks were a couple days apart with two of the pylons being hit on Friday and the next two being hit Sunday. The Washington Post reports that more than a quarter of the population, mostly in major cities, had their power restored through the use of mobile gas turbine generators by Sunday afternoon. However, there are still many without power, and the Crimean government said it would come up with a schedule for supplying electricity and water to homes without power.
But repairs were delayed when Ukrainian activists took the roads on Saturday and attempted to block the trucks from getting to the damaged towers. However, they retreated after clashes with the police, according to Voice of America News.
Crimea was annexed in 2014 by Russia after pro-Western Ukrainian protests forced President Viktor Yanukovych from office. Weeks later, a rebel group that wanted to separate from Russia, launched a large enough rebellion that trade and travel sanctions were placed on key Russian officials. Voice of America News reports that the U.N. announced in September that nearly 8,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the conflict.
