Power curbs hit homes in Crimea’s Sevastopol

Sevastopol has limited power ‌supplies to households to avoid overloading the strained network, the Russian-installed governor of Crimea's largest city said on Thursday, as the Black Sea peninsula grapples with ​fuel and power shortages.

Crimean authorities have already suspended fuel sales ​to private motorists, while Sevastopol has introduced restrictions on operating ⁠hours for public transport, shops, cafes and street lights.

Russia annexed Crimea ​from Ukraine in 2014, though most countries do not recognise Moscow's ​authority over the region, which Kyiv has said it will never cede. Ukrainian attacks on logistics and energy facilities in Russia have interrupted its fuel supplies.
Mikhail Razvozhayev, ​Moscow's governor of Sevastopol, which is home to Russia's Black ​Sea Fleet, urged people not to use powerful appliances.

"This measure is forced. It is ‌necessary ⁠to relieve the overload on power grids outside our region in order to prevent an accident across the entire energy system," he said.

He had said on Wednesday that the latest Ukrainian attacks had downed power ​supplies. Trolleybuses would ​not operate, ⁠he added, and parents should keep their children at home.

Ukraine said its drones had hit the main ​substation at the Sevastopol power plant.

Ukraine has said its ​strategy ⁠of targeting Russian energy facilities with long-range drones is aimed at sapping a key source of Russia's war funds and showing Russians that the four-year ⁠conflict ​launched by Moscow is hitting closer to ​home.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin has said the attacks on civilian infrastructure are meant to ​sow discord among the Russian population.

-Reuters