Millions of Ukrainians and Russians are without electricity
A massive winter storm sweeps across Russia's south as well as Crimea and the other partly Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine. More than 2000 communities are cut off from the power supply. Storm waves stop oil shipments as well as traffic on highways.
A severe winter storm has caused chaos and massive power cuts in southern Russia and Ukraine. According to Moscow, almost two million people in Russia and the occupied Ukrainian territories were without electricity on Monday. The Ukrainian authorities reported power cuts in over 2,000 municipalities.
According to the Russian Energy Ministry, southern Russia, the annexed Crimean Peninsula and the partially Russian-occupied Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson were particularly affected by the outages caused by the "mega-storm". The Ukrainian Ministry of the Interior spoke of a total of 2019 communities in 16 regions that were without electricity.
In the Russian Black Sea region of Krasnodar with the popular Black Sea resorts of Sochi and Anapa, hundreds of trees were reportedly toppled and a freighter flying the flag of Belize ran aground off the coast. In the face of gusts of up to 86 kilometers per hour and storm waves up to eight meters high, the Caspian Pipeline consortium in Novorossiysk announced that it was suspending oil shipments and moving its tankers to safety.
State of emergency and no work due to "Armageddon"
The governor of Crimea, which has been annexed by Russia since 2014, Sergei Aksyonov, declared Monday a non-working day and declared a state of emergency for several areas. The President of the Crimean Parliament, Vladimir Konstantinov, spoke of a true "Armageddon" on the Russian television station Rossia 24.
Russian television showed storm waves flooding highways and crashing over cars. In Sevastopol, the aquarium was flooded and 5,000 sea creatures were killed, according to the local governor.
The winter storm hit Ukraine, whose energy supply is already under pressure due to the Russian war of aggression, particularly hard. In addition to the massive power outages, the snowstorm caused chaos on the roads. According to the Ministry of the Interior, hundreds of vehicles got stuck and had to be towed away. In the port city of Odessa, which is regularly hit by Russian attacks, the authorities came to the aid of over 1600 people who were trapped by the snow.
The extreme weather conditions, including the winter storm, have also affected the international power supply in Russia and Ukraine, badly impacting both countries. The Russian Energy Ministry reported that the storm affected regions under Russian control, such as Crimea and parts of Ukraine like Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia, and Kherson, leading to power outages in thousands of communities.
Source: www.ntv.de
