Crimea Switches Away From Ukrainian Power Supply After Blackout

Crimea has switched away from Ukrainian electricity supply and does not regard Kiev as a reliable trade partner after power lines leading to the breakaway peninsula were severed, the region’s senior official said Thursday.

SIMFEROPOL (Sputnik) — Crimea, home to 2 million of mostly Russian residents, was plunged into darkness for days in November after Ukrainian radicals blew up pylons that supported electricity lines from Ukraine.

"We have weaned ourselves from Ukrainian electricity once and for all, we do not need it," Crimea’s First Deputy Prime Minister Mikhail Sheremet told RIA Novosti, adding they had stopped counting Ukrainian electricity supplies into their total.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko earlier proposed to sign a contract with the region on power deliveries, provided that it is identified in the agreement as a Ukrainian territory. Crimean authorities declined this offer.

"We do not take Ukrainian authorities seriously because they have never stuck to the terms of any agreement till the end," Sheremet confessed.

Following the outage, Russia sped up the construction of underwater power lines from the Krasnodar territory across the Kerch Strait and connected Crimea to its power grid in December. Two strings went online on December 2 and 15, with two more expected to become operational in spring.