While Ukraine continues to plead with the international community that the Russian annexation of Crimea is illegal and against all international norms and directives, and just after it voted to end its non-aligned status [6] and work towards Nato membership, a move Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called "counterproductive" and said it would boost tensions, overnight Kiev had little problems with leaving "its" population in the Black Sea peninsula in the dark on Christmas eve.
According to Reuters, Ukraine "temporarily [7]" cut off power supplies to Crimea on Wednesday after the Russian-controlled peninsula failed to curb consumption as required due to a power crisis, the Ukrainian energy ministry said.
"Today electricity supplies to Crimea were shut off ... just as would be done to any region of Ukraine," a ministry representative told Reuters by phone. "Supplies will be restored as soon as they implement the set consumption regime."
Energy Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn subsequently told a government meeting supplies had resumed to Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in March, but still depends on Ukraine for power supplies.
This is what Crimea looked like in the aftermath of the blackout:
Russia annexed Crimea Parliament without electricity these days.Blackout in peninsula with holidays around the corner pic.twitter.com/2bIYswUtH7 [8]
— Ryskeldi Satke (@RyskeldiSatke) December 24, 2014 [9]
Ukraine's move was clearly comparable to the "international community" cutting off North Korea's internet: a demonstration of just how easily it can be done.
The good news: following the media reports, moments ago Bloomberg reported that power has been partially restored.
