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As Sabotage Blacks Out Crimea, Tatars Prevent Repairs

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Electricity Cutoffs in Crimea

Residents in Crimea talk about how power failures are affecting their lives after the power supply from Ukraine was cut off.

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Residents in Crimea talk about how power failures are affecting their lives after the power supply from Ukraine was cut off.CreditCredit...Pavel Rebrov/Reuters

MOSCOW — Crimean Tatar activists and Ukrainian nationalists on Monday prevented repair crews from restoring the main power lines in southern Ukraine that supply Crimea, leaving the disputed peninsula in the dark and Ukraine and Russia headed toward a standoff over the issue.

The power lines were knocked down by saboteurs on Sunday, forcing millions of residents to live without electricity.

The Tatar activists who blockaded the damaged site said they would thwart repairs until Russia released political prisoners and allowed international organizations to monitor human rights in Crimea. The activists say that the 300,000-member Tatar minority has faced systematic repression since Russia annexed the peninsula in March 2014.

President Petro O. Poroshenko of Ukraine, without mentioning the electricity cutoff directly, appeared to endorse the confrontation.

After a meeting with the foreign ministers of Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, Mr. Poroshenko echoed the demands of the Tatar protesters, saying that the international community should work to release arrested activists, restore Crimean Tatar broadcasts and reverse the exile of Tatar leaders.

“We are not satisfied with today’s status quo when the occupational authorities neglect basic rights of Crimea Tatars,” Mr. Poroshenko said, before making an indirect reference to the destruction of the electricity lines. “These irresponsible actions caused significant escalation between the activists and occupational authorities.”

Mr. Poroshenko also released a letter on Monday that he had first sent to the Ukrainian cabinet on Nov. 4, calling on the prime minister to study the question of halting all freight transport to and from Crimea.

The sudden release of the letter almost 20 days after he sent it also seemed to offer a subtle endorsement of the electricity protest.

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An activist, center, attempted to stop Ukrainian forces at the site where electric pylons were damaged in Ukraine on Saturday.Credit...Reuters

In Moscow, Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, reacted calmly, saying that he was unaware of any timetable to repair the lines but that he hoped that Ukraine would take “rapid measures” to do the work.

President Vladimir V. Putin, who was traveling to a meeting of gas exporters in Iran, did not immediately comment. He was unlikely to take kindly to Ukraine disrupting life for all of Crimea, however, given that he has made its absorption into Russia something of a personal project.

Sergei V. Aksyonov, the Kremlin-appointed prime minister of the Crimean Republic, was more exercised, calling the power cutoff “a terrorist act” in a statement on Monday.

“I would urge Crimeans to be patient and to see what our situation is,” Mr. Aksyonov said. “Nobody will be allowed to blackmail us in order to solve any issues.”

Ukraine still claims the peninsula, and its senior officials have been perturbed that its seizure by Russia has seemingly dropped off the international agenda, rating a fleeting mention at best whenever the crisis over fighting in southeastern Ukraine is discussed.

The issue of supplies coming from Ukraine has been a repeated source of tension, as food, water and electricity still flow from the mainland to the peninsula. A major irrigation canal was shut down in 2014, but significant rainfall and other local sources prevented serious damage to crops this year. In September, Tatar and other activists tried to blockade the main road leading from Crimea to Ukraine, disrupting food supplies.

Crimea’s only other surface link to the outside world is a ferry line to Russia, with limited capacity. Russia plans to build an enormous bridge, but that would not be completed for at least three years.

It was not immediately clear who destroyed the main electric pylons on Friday and Sunday, but the blasted away stump of at least one near the demonstrators was wrapped in the distinctive Crimean Tatar flag, blue with a yellow trident in the upper left-hand corner.

Video shown by the ATR network, a Tatar television station now operating in Ukraine after its main channel in Crimea was forced to close, showed Tatar activists tackling the special Ukrainian police units trying to gain access for repair crews.

The leadership of both the Crimean Tatars, forced into exile by Russia, and a right-wing nationalist group, Right Sector, endorsed the destruction without claiming responsibility.

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A damaged electric pylon near the village of Chonhar in the Kherson region on Monday. The main power lines in southern Ukraine that supply Crimea were knocked down by saboteurs.Credit...Reuters

Mustafa A. Dzhemilev, the leader of the Crimean Tatar minority, told the Ukrainian news website Lega.net that the power pylons “could have been blown away by the wind.”

“Why should we supply the invader with everything he needs?” asked Mr. Dzhemilev, a member of the Ukrainian Parliament. “If they have occupied our territory, then we must smoke them out.”

Mr. Dzhemilev said those blockading the site would allow repairs to the power lines that supply electricity to the surrounding area in the Ukrainian region of Kherson, but not to Crimea.

Prime Minister Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk of Ukraine said he would begin negotiations with Tatar representatives on Monday to try to allow repair crews to begin to work, but there were no immediate results from the discussions.

Russian officials said the power supply could be restored in two hours after the trunk lines were repaired. Senior officials at Ukrenergo, which runs Ukraine’s power grid, said it would take three to four days to rebuild the pylons.

Four local power plants, including two nuclear ones, scaled back production because they had no means to distribute the electricity, Ukrenergo said.

More than 1.6 million people still lacked power on Monday morning, Russia’s Energy Ministry said in a statement. Local power plants in Crimea, as well as backup generators, were being used to provide power to hospitals, schools and other vital facilities.

Russian news media played down the effects of the blockade, noting that balmy weather conditions made heating unnecessary. The Ukrainian news media painted a bleaker picture, emphasizing that cellphones and most gas stations were out of service. Pictures from Crimea showed long lines forming at gas stations and bakeries, and vendors selling candles on street corners.

The Crimean authorities declared Monday a day off for nongovernment workers and declared a state of emergency, which can last as long as one month. Crimean officials also said they had enough fuel stocks on hand to keep the backup power plants and generators running for a month.

Russia is building an “energy bridge” from its mainland territory to Crimea that officials hope will supply most of the peninsula’s needs. Its first phase will begin operating by the end of this year, Mr. Aksyonov said.

Alisa Sopova contributed reporting from Donetsk, Ukraine.

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A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 14 of the New York edition with the headline: Activists Block Repair of Sabotaged Lines in Crimea, Leaving Region in Darkness. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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