On the night of Oct 20, a group of unknown men blew up two towers supporting the Melitopol-Dzhankoy power transmission line.
The towers have been damaged but not pulled down. The saboteurs fixed mortar bombs to the towers. Two of them failed to blow up. The police are investigating the case.
According to EADaily, energy blockade is the only weapon the Ukrainian radical forces can use against Crimea. Today Crimea produces just 28% of its energy, with the rest received from Ukraine. By Dec the Crimean authorities are planning to build an energy bridge from Russia’s Krasnodar region. The bridge will have four lines that will supply 350MW a day. This will make up 70% of necessary energy.
They in Moscow admit that Crimea will be 100% energy secure only in 2018 when it has two new thermal power plants and a gas pipeline from Krasnodar region. This is why they are making concessions to Ukrainians. In July, Ukrainians raised the electric power price by 20% and are going to raise it by 15% more to 3.92 RUR per KW. The Russians’ response will be tough and will certainly affect Ukraine as that country is fully dependent on Russian energy.