Protesters in Ukraine set demands for resuming electricity supply to Crimea

Activists from the Crimean Tatar community, who blocked maintenance crews access to the damaged power lines supplying electricity to Crimea, said Monday that they are ready to allow them to enter the site if certain conditions were met.

"The talks on the resumption of electricity supply are possible after the release of our political prisoners held in Russia," Mustafa Dzhemilev, a Ukrainian lawmaker and one of the leaders of the Crimean Tatars, said in a statement published by the press service of Ukraine's ruling Solidarity party.

The protesters may let maintenance crews start repair work only on the damaged power lines that supply electricity to several districts of Kherson region of southern Ukraine, Dzhemilev said.

For the third consecutive day, protesters continue to block the site in Kherson region, where four transmission pylons were reportedly blown up, leaving about 1.8 million people in the Crimean peninsula without electricity.

On Sunday, the Ukrainian Energy Ministry said that the power lines that deliver electricity to two districts in Kherson region, were also affected.

According to the Ukrainian state-run energy company Ukrenergo, it would take up to four days to get the damaged power lines up and running again.

Crimea, which affiliated with Russia in 2014 after a local referendum, heavily depends on Ukraine for power supplies, importing between 70 and 80 percent of its electricity consumption from the country.

Some of Crimean Tatar representatives have long objected the peninsula's affiliation with Russia, threatening to impose a "blockade" on food and electricity deliveries to Crimea. Endi