Ukraine partially restored power to Crimea on Tuesday, after a series of explosions last month damaged high voltage lines supplying electricity to the peninsula, annexed by Russia in March, 2014.
Electricity started flowing again along one of the four power lines destroyed by blasts during protests against Russia's annexation of Crimea. Following the explosions, pro-Ukrainian activists, including Crimean Tatars, prevented engineers from repairing the lines.
Work to repair the line was carried out "in agreement" with the protest groups, Ukraine's state power company said in a statement. The repaired line provides only 15 percent of Crimea's electricity needs.
With a population of about 2 million people, Crimea depends almost entirely on Ukraine for its power and water supplies.
Crimea's Russia-backed leaders and Moscow claimed that Ukraine's Western-backed leadership was responsible for bringing down the power lines - an allegation Kyiv has repeatedly denied.
President Vladimir Putin traveled to Crimea last week and inaugurated an undersea cable from Russia that Moscow says will supply the peninsula with most of its electricity needs by the third week of December.
Prior to the blackout, Crimea was receiving about 80 percent of its energy from Ukraine.
Some material for this report came from AFP.
