October
20, 2015, 13:43 UTC+3
A transmission tower has been damaged by an explosive device, local police official says
A transmission tower has been damaged by an explosive device, local police official says
© ITAR-TASS/Sergei
Fadeichev
KIEV,
October 20. /TASS/. Unidentified perpetrators have exploded a tower of the
power transmission line to Crimea in Ukraine’s Kherson region near the border
village of Chongar, Ilya Kiva, deputy head of police in the southern Kherson
region, said on Tuesday.
"A
transmission tower has been damaged by an explosive device," Kiva told the
UNN (Ukrainian National News) agency. He said that the "tower was part of
the power line feeding electricity to the occupied territory" [Kiev
regards Crimea as occupied territory].
According
to him, law enforcement officers have found that another transmission tower was
mined. "In fact, one tower has been exploded and one mined," Kiva
said.
Rescuers
have been working at the scene. The investigation is underway.
Previously,
on October 6, unidentified attackers damaged the tower of Ukraine’s
Dzhankoi-Melitopol electricity transmission line feeding power to Crimea.
Ukraine’s national energy company Ukrenergo said that the transmission tower
was damaged by the supporters of blockade of Crimea. Ukrainian Fuel and Energy
Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn said that there was no power blockade of
Crimea. "The ministry is supplying electricity to Crimea, we are not
playing political games," he said then.
The
line assault followed a warning by supporters of former Crimean Deputy Prime
Minister Lenur Islyamov and Ukrainian parliament members Mustafa Dzhemilev and
Refat Chubarov on September 20 that a Crimean food blockade would disrupt free
passage of trucks carrying supplies. This was supported by extremist group
Right Sector, outlawed in Russia.
Chubarov
also told journalists that electricity supply to the peninsula could soon be at
risk, noting this could happen in October.
The
Ukrainian Interior Ministry opened a criminal case over damaging the Chongar
transmission tower, as well as the Dzhankoi-Melitopol power line under the
Criminal Code article "intentional destruction or damage to power
facilities," envisaging punishment from three to ten years in prison.
Crimea
and the peninsula's Russian federal city of Sevastopol declared independence in
March last year after a referendum in which nearly 97% of Crimeans and some 96%
of Sevastopol voters chose to secede from Ukraine and join the Russian
Federation. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the reunification deals
that same month.
Despite
the referendum's convincing result, Kiev refuses to recognize Crimea as part of
Russia.
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http://tass.com/economy/830184
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