Crimean authorities qualify blowing up of high voltage lines in south of Ukraine as an act of sabotage

The prosecutor’s office of Crimea has petitioned the Crimean office of Russia’s Federal Security Service to qualify the blowing up of two high voltage lines in the south of Ukraine as an act of sabotage.

Crimea’s Prosecutor Natalia Poklonskaya says that such a charge implies 20 years in jail.

“This crime has caused a threat to the life and health of almost 2,000,000 people,” she says.

Head of Crimea Sergey Aksyonov said earlier that the blowing up was an act of terrorism. “I have no other term for this. Now it is for our law enforcers to react,” Aksyonov said.

“Nobody can bring us to knees or blackmail us. We will endure any pressure and will give fitting reply,” Aksyonov said.

As EADaily reported earlier, two high voltage lines were damaged in Ukraine’s Kherson region on Nov 20. After the incident, one of the organizers of the so-called blockade of Crimea Lenur Islyamov posted in a social network a photo from the scene.

The Crimean authorities instituted criminal cases against two “blockaders” – former Prime Minister of Crimea Lenur Islyamov and Ukrainian MP Refat Chubarov - who are charged with calling for breach of Russia’s territorial integrity.

Russia’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak has promised to launch shortly an energy bridge from Russia to Crimea.

Crimea gets 80% of its electric power from Ukraine. In order to reduce this dependence, the local authorities, jointly with the Russians, are building an energy bridge, which is supposed to connect Crimea with a new 600MW thermal power plant in Russia’s Krasnodar Krai. The first of the two 400-megawatt lines of the bridge is supposed to be launched shortly. The second one is to be launched in 2016.