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Poroshenko says electricity supplies to Crimea will be resumed soon

He admitted that the damages to the transmission lines caused electricity problems in Ukraine’s Kherson and Nikolayev regions
Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko EPA/VALDA KALNINA
Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko
© EPA/VALDA KALNINA

KIEV, December 6. /TASS/. Electricity supplies to Crimea via one of the electricity transmission lines from Ukraine that were damaged late in November will be resumed soon, Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko said in an interview with Ukrainian television channels on Sunday.

"I think electricity supplies [to Crimea] will be resumed soon," he said, adding that electricity would be transmitted via the Kakhovka-Titan power line which had a capacity of 220-250 megawatt.

He admitted that the damages to the transmission lines caused electricity problems in Ukraine’s Kherson and Nikolayev regions. "The government supported mu position that a state of emergency should be imposed over rolling outages in Ukraine," he said.

Earlier on Sunday, Refat Chubarov, a member of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada (parliament) and one of the organizers of the food and energy blockade of Crimea, told a briefing that activists of the energy blockade of Crimea had decided to unblock the electricity transmission line that was repaired after the November 22 incident. "Activists of the blockade have arrived at a position that electricity supplies along the Kakhovka-Titan line can be resumed," he said.

He said the decision had been taken after consultations with the Ukrainian president and prime minister. "Yesterday, we had a long consultation with the president. Before that we had spoken with the prime minister. We, the blockade activists, can see the following compromise in this situation: only one line - Kakhovka-Titan - may be re-commissioned with our consent," he said.

Electricity supplies to Crimea from Ukraine’s Kherson region were interrupted on November 22 when Ukrainian radicals blew up transmission pylons at all the four electricity transmission lines. Ever since one of the damaged lines - Kakhovka-Titan - was restored, energy blockade activists have been blocking its use.