REUTERS
Ukrainian activists, calling themselves Civil Blockade of Crimea, are waiting for a signal from the occupying authorities in Crimea that they are ready to release captive pilot Nadia Savchenko and deputy head of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis Akhtem Chiygoz, which is one of the conditions for unblocking repairs to damaged power lines on the administrative border between mainland Ukraine and the Russian-annexed Crimea.
"The leaders of the Mejlis and activists of the Civil Blockade of Crimea (CBC) have held meetings, but haven't decided yet that the power supply to the peninsula should resume. Therefore, until the activists don't get such orders from the CBC headquarters, they will be blocking all the transmission pylons," CBC coordinator Lenur Islyamov said on TV Channel 112 Ukraine.
In his words, the activists are also blocking further repairs to the 220 kV Kakhovska-Titan power line.
"What we're waiting is reaction from the occupied territory so that they start negotiating with our Akhtem Chiygoz, who is a Crimean Tatar, and with Nadia Savchenko, and start having a conversation with us that they're releasing him and her. The activists are looking forward to reaction from the official authorities of Russia and expression of their readiness to release our citizens who have illegally being held in Russian prisons," Islyamov said.
As UNIAN reported earlier, the two out of the four transmission pylons on the administrative border between mainland Ukraine and Russian-occupied Crimea, which were damaged by blasts in the early hours of November 20, were destroyed completely in a new explosion on November 21.
The four pylons belong to the power grids supplying electricity to Crimea and some areas in Ukraine's Kherson and Mykolaiv regions.
After the incident, the Crimean occupying authorities reported about a total power blackout on the peninsula in the early hours of November 22. According to some reports, strategic facilities were switched to the independent power supply.
The repair teams of NEC Ukrenergo, who have been involved in repairing the power lines supplying the electricity to Crimea, had to stop at the activists' requests.