Reuters: Russian-annexed Crimea hit by power blackout

18/01/2024

2 minute read

Parts of Crimea, annexed by Russian troops in 2014, were left without electricity on the evening of 18 January, Reuters has reported. Later, the Russian Energy Ministry said power was restored.

According to the occupation authorities, the blackout was caused by an emergency shutdown of a power plant in Balaklava, which resulted from an interruption of its gas supply. However, what caused the malfunction was not clear.

Since Russia annexed the peninsula, Crimea has served as one of the largest Russian military bases used by the occupiers to strike peaceful Ukrainian cities and villages.

In 2023, Russia launched five types of missiles at the south-Ukrainian port city of Odesa, destroying port infrastructure and at least six residential buildings and damaging dozens of cars in an attack that aimed to undermine Ukraine’s grain exports.

Russian night attack ruins largest Orthodox cathedral in Odesa

Then, Ukraine’s air defense reported that it intercepted nine of the 19 missiles that Russia fired at Odesa:

5 Onyks cruise missiles from the Bastion coastal missile system (Crimea);
3 Kh-22 air-launched cruise missiles – launched from Tu-22MZ aircraft (Black Sea);
4 Kalibr sea-launched cruise missiles – allegedly from a submarine (Black Sea);
5 Iskander-K land-launched cruise missiles (Crimea);
2 Iskander-M ballistic missiles (Crimea).

In the past year, Ukrainian missile and surface suicide drone attacks forced Russia to relocate many ships from its Black Sea Fleet’s main base in Sevastopol, occupied Crimea, to ports in Russia located further away from Ukraine.

UK Defense Minister: 20% of Russia’s Black Sea fleet destroyed over past four months

According to UK Defense Secretary Grant Shapps, 20% of Russia’s Black Sea fleet was destroyed, and those who claimed stalemate in the Russo-Ukrainian war were incorrect.

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