Power supplies have been restored to Crimea after the peninsula was struck by a power outage earlier on Friday, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak told journalists, the TASS news agency reported.
“The situation will become clear soon,” he said, adding that it most likely was not an emergency. “The energy bridge was functioning, providing power for almost all the Crimean Federal District,” Novak was quoted as saying by TASS.
The reasons for the power outage are currently being analyzed.
Several districts of the Crimean peninsula, including major cities such as Sevastopol, Simferopol, Feodosia and Yalta lost energy at around 1 p.m. on Friday for unknown reasons, Sevastopol’s governor Sergei Menyailo told the Life news agency.
Crimean hospitals and educational institutions were temporarily switched to backup generators, Life reported.
On May 11, the second stage of a Russian energy bridge — built to provide the annexed peninsula with power — was put into operation. Crimean officials on Wednesday canceled the state of emergency that was in force for almost six months due to energy shortages.
Although the state of emergency was lifted, the power supply system is still being tested, Crimean leader Sergei Aksyonov said, TASS reported.
