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Crimea and Sevastopol

Ptosecutor estimates damage caused by Crimea blackout at over $4.7 million

Crimean Prosecutor Natalya Poklonskaya said the final figure could be much higher

Crimean Prosecutor Natalya Poklonskaya Alexander Ryumin/TASS

Crimean Prosecutor Natalya Poklonskaya

© Alexander Ryumin/TASS

SIMFEROPOL, January 13. /TASS/. The damage caused by the blowing up of a power transmission line as a result of which energy supplies from Ukraine to Crimea were blocked has exceeded 360 million rubles ($4.7 million), Crimean Prosecutor Natalya Poklonskaya told journalists on Wednesday.

Poklonskaya said the eventual figure could be much higher.

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Crimean parliament asks to designate Kiev actions against peninsula residents as genocide

"As of now, we have 361 million rubles. As of the moment when the case was opened, the sum was about 70 million rubles. The sum is made up of losses submitted by the ministries of industrial policy, healthcare, transport. That is, costs borne by various departments," she said.

She said the figure does not yet include data on losses sustained by Crimean enterprises after energy supplies from Ukraine were terminated.

Crimean authorities launched criminal proceedings under the article "sabotage" over the blowing up of a power transmission line in Ukraine’s Kherson Region on November 22, 2015. The key accused in the case is former deputy premier of Crimea, ATR television channel owner Lenur Islyamov. His property in Crimea and Moscow has been seized by court order.

"The Supreme court of the Republic of Crimea will consider the criminal case with pleasure. The measure of restraint has been chosen for the accused in absentia," Poklonskaya said.

Crimean blackout

Crimea was left without power overnight to November 22, 2015 after unknown assailants blew up electricity pylons in Ukraine’s Kherson Region. An energy saving regime was imposed on the peninsula, with many enterprises suspending their activity; rolling blackouts started in all inhabited localities.

Read also

Dam may break in Crimea’s Sevastopol with threat of flooding

The situation stabilized after the launch on December 2 of the first thread of the "energy bridge" from Russia’s southern Krasnodar Territory, which gave the peninsula an additional 250 MW of electric power. The commissioning of the second thread of the "energy bridge" on December 15 increased its power to 400 MW.

Another two threads are to be commissioned in spring, which will make it possible to make Crimea independent of Ukrainian electric energy. Besides, the construction of two basic thermal electric power plants with the power of 940 MW has started.

Overnight to December 31, power supply of Crimea from Ukraine through the only working power transmission line "Kakhovka-Titan" was disrupted again. According to preliminary expert conclusions, an explosion caused the collapse of a power transmission line pylon.

Read also

Massive power blackout in Crimea

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Crimea and Sevastopol

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