MOSCOW (AP) – In a move that further cements Russia’s control over parts of eastern Ukraine, Russian officials announced Tuesday they will begin supplying electricity to separatist-controlled areas after the Ukrainian government cut off power because of a heavy backlog of unpaid bills.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the decision as a humanitarian mission helping to keep an estimated 3 million people out of darkness in rebel-held areas in the Luhansk region along Russia’s border. The rebels are backed by Russia.
Ukraine on Monday announced it would stop supplying power because of mounting debts, and power was cut off shortly before midnight.
“Cutting the power supply to the Luhansk region is yet another step by Ukraine to push those territories away,” Peskov told reporters in Moscow, saying the move “contradicts the spirit” of the peace accords that Kiev and the rebels signed in Minsk, Belarus, under Russia and European mediation in 2015.
Despite the three years of fighting in eastern Ukraine that has killed more than 9,900 people, trade and supplies of water and electricity for the most part have continued across the front line. Many factories and coal mines in this industrial heartland are interdependent, and a rupture in supply lines could cause a complete industrial breakdown.