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MOSCOW — Crimea will experience power shortages until at least May, the
Kremlin-appointed government of the region announced after a meeting in
Simferopol, the capital, on Thursday.
A state of emergency was declared in
Crimea on Nov. 22 after Ukrainian saboteurs knocked out power lines
that supplied the peninsula with electricity from Ukraine. Russia annexed Crimea from
Ukraine in 2014.
The first
phase of an “energy bridge” from mainland Russia to Crimea started
operation in December, but it was not enough to replace the shortage, and the
peninsula still lacks 30 percent of the electricity it needs, the head of the
Crimean branch of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry, Sergei Shakhov,
said at the meeting. The deficit is to be supplied by the second phase of the
energy line in May, he added.
Local
industry has lost 900 million rubles, or about $12 million, because of the
power cutoff, Yevgeniya G. Bavykina, the deputy head of the Crimean government
appointed by Moscow, said at the meeting.
Temporary
shelters were set up across the peninsula on Monday because of the power
shortage and cold weather, the Emergency Situations Ministry said in a
statement.
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