REUTERS
Russian Deputy Energy Minister Andrey Cherezov says Russia is ready to buy electricity from Ukraine for the annexed Crimea until at least next summer, according to TV channel Russia 24.
He said Russia could stop buying Ukrainian electricity in May 2016 after the second line of the energy bridge to the peninsula has been launched.
"By the beginning of summer, Crimea will be completely independent from Ukraine's power supplies. In the meantime, talks are being held to extend from a new year a contract to cover a deficit of megawatts," Cherezov said.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said that the decision to extend the contract on power supplies to the occupied Crimea after January 1, 2016, would be made by the National Security and Defense Council.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry is developing a new contract which will regulate power supplies to Crimea, while also defining the legal status of the peninsula in the document.
On November 29, state company Ukrenergo repaired the 220 kV Kakhovska-Titan power line and declared its readiness to resume the power supply to Crimea within a few hours after reaching an agreement with the activists of the Crimea blockade. However, such agreement was not reached.
On December 8, Ukrenergo put into operation one of the four transmission lines in the direction of Crimea.
Two contracts on the electricity supply between Ukraine and Russia were signed on December 30, 2014.
Ukraine's Energy and Coal Industry Ministry is now working on a new contract on the supply of electricity to Crimea and is considering how the new document should define the legal status of the peninsula.