2 million people in Crimea without power after transmission towers were destroyed

[Emily]

http://www.ibtimes.com/massive-blac...smission-towers-blown-unknown-parties-2195191

[h=1]Massive Blackout In Crimea After Transmission Towers 'Blown Up' By Unknown Parties[/h] By Jeff Stone on November 21 2015 10:13 PM
UPDATE: 12:50 a.m. EST -- A state of emergency has been declared in Crimea after pylons carrying electricity from Ukraine were "blown up," cutting off power to 2 million people, media and the Russian government said Sunday.

 

[Emily]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...ff-11e5-befa-99ceebcbb272-20151123-story.html

[h=1]Ukraine grabs attention with Crimea blackout[/h]
Leonid Bershidsky and BloombergBloomberg


Even if Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to end his country's conflict with Ukraine so he could build an alliance with Western powers to beat Islamic State -- and it's not clear at all that he does -- Ukrainians wouldn't let him.
...
The "blockade" probably did more damage to Ukrainian companies than to Russian power in Crimea: Stores in the peninsula filled with Russian and Turkish goods, albeit at higher prices. Yet the activists who maintain the checkpoints had a more potent weapon. On Nov. 13, the Ukrainian utility, Ukrenergo, announced that the country no longer needed Russian electricity because some new nuclear power capacity had just come online. Just a week later, the first two transmission towers in the Kherson region were blown up.
Kiev dispatched a national guard unit headed by Ilya Kiva, an eastern war hero who used to be a Right Sector leader, to restore peace to the area and make sure nobody died from contact with dangling high-voltage cables. The group was attacked by activists, some of them balaclava-clad, and one of the servicemen was stabbed. After Kiva left, the remaining two transmission towers exploded. Rather than get mad and threaten destruction, Kiva posted half-apologetic messages on Facebook showing he sympathized with the protesters. "The blockade continues!" he wrote. "Crimea has no light! I'm off to bed."...

That's a coldly selfish thing to do to the civilians of Crimea.