The key facts
- Emergency crews in Crimea are working in a heightened regime, Sergey Aksyonov said
- Mass power outages began on 3 November and affected several cities and districts
- School holidays have been extended; classes are tentatively set to resume on 9 November
Emergency crews placed on heightened duty
Crimea continues to face a difficult situation with electricity and heating supplies following an accident on the power grid. The head of the republic, Sergey Aksyonov, said that all emergency crews have been placed on heightened duty to deal with the aftermath of the emergency on the main power lines. “The situation is difficult, and everyone understands this. Unfortunately, for technical, military and subjective reasons, it is impossible to fix everything at once,” he wrote, thanking residents for their resilience, unity and patience. He said this in his Telegram channel, and repeated the message on Max.
Scale of the outages and their consequences
Mass power outages affected cities and districts of Crimea on 3 November. Restrictions were in effect in Simferopol, Yalta, Kerch, Saki, Yevpatoria and other municipalities. In some localities, rolling blackout schedules were introduced, and in Simferopol trolleybuses stopped running partially. On the night of 4 November, according to Russia’s Ministry of Energy, outages occurred again after a Ukrainian Armed Forces attack on energy infrastructure — in Crimea and Sevastopol. Due to the difficult electricity supply situation, school holidays in the republic were extended: tentatively, classes will resume on 9 November. The head of the Simferopol administration, Mikhail Afanasyev, also announced that the city’s kindergartens are operating on a reduced schedule.
What is known about the causes
The day before, on 5 November, Aksyonov reported problems with electricity in the republic due to an accident on main power lines outside the region. Earlier, on 24 October, water and electricity supplies in Crimea had already been restricted following a Ukrainian Armed Forces strike. Thus, the current outages are a continuation of a series of disruptions rather than a one-off event: the authorities link them both to the accident on external grids and to strikes on energy infrastructure. No full timeline for restoring supplies was given at the time of publication.
