The Russian-appointed governor overseeing the occupied portion of Ukraine’s Kherson region announced early Friday that electricity had been completely or partially cut off throughout the area, which borders Crimea. Governor Vladimir Saldo made the announcement via Telegram but offered no additional details about the cause or extent of the outages.
In Sevastopol, Crimea’s largest city — which Russia seized and annexed in 2014 — authorities have been deliberately limiting power distribution to prevent the already-stressed electrical grid from being overwhelmed. Those restrictions followed a series of Ukrainian drone attacks that have also triggered a fuel shortage in the region.
The situation in Crimea is worsening on multiple fronts. The Russian-installed governor of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, announced Thursday that train service to the peninsula will be gradually scaled back. Crimea is a popular warm-weather destination for Russian tourists during the summer months. Aksyonov had previously ordered the closure of children’s summer camps on the peninsula.
Aksyonov also confirmed that one person died Thursday in a drone strike near the crossing point between Crimea and the Russian-held section of the Kherson region.
