Vox Pop: Crimeans React To Power Cut
People in Crimea have been voicing anger after the peninsula's electricity supplies from Ukraine were cut off. Crimea was annexed by Russia last year but continued to receive electricity supplies from Ukraine until explosions on November 20-21 brought down four electricity transmission towers. (RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service)
EU reassures Ukraine despite overtures to Russia
Kiev, Nov 24, 2015 (AFP) -- Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Tuesday the European Union had assured him it would keep its focus on Kiev despite efforts by some of the bloc's members to enlist Russia in a coalition against the Islamic State.
The pro-Western leader of the former Soviet country said European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker had told him by phone "that for the European Union, the Ukrainian issue invariably remains a priority".
Kiev is concerned by France's attempts to enlist Russia -- viewed by Ukraine's leadership as an aggressor responsible for a 19-month separatist revolt in the east -- into a broader anti-jihadist coalition that also includes the United States.
Poroshenko's main worry is that Brussels will soften its Ukrainian-linked sanctions against Moscow in return for Russian President Vladimir Putin's support.
Such a decision would come with fighting in rebel-run regions escalating in recent weeks -- a reversal some analysts blame on Putin's decision to ramp up the Ukrainian war just as the world's attention focuses on the consequences of the Paris attacks.
Poroshenko said Juncker shared Kiev's "concern for the rise in the number of (ceasefire violations) staged by the rebels".
Analysts remain split about whether the uptick in violence is linked to Putin or some insurgency commanders' bid to draw back Moscow's attention to their own plight.
Russia denies orchestrating or supporting the eastern Ukrainian revolt as punishment for Kiev's decision to oust a Moscow-backed president last year.
One of Europe's deadliest conflicts since the Balkans wars of the 1990s has claimed the lives of more than 8,000 people, the majority of them civilians.
That concludes our live-blogging of the Ukraine crisis for Tuesday, November 24. Check back here tomorrow morning for more of our continuing coverage.
Good morning. Three stories on the Crimean blackout.
Explainer: Why Ukraine Supplies Electricity To Crimea, And Why It Stopped
News Analysis: Crimean Tatars Push Kyiv's Hand On Recovering Crimea
and a video, 'They Want To Scare Us': Crimeans React To Blackout
From our news desk. Russia stops gas deliveries to Ukraine.
Russia's state-controlled natural-gas giant Gazprom has stopped deliveries of gas to Ukraine because of Kyiv's alleged failure to make the required prepayments.
Gazprom CEO Aleksei Miller said in Moscow on November 25 that no further gas deliveries will be forthcoming until payment is made.
He said Ukraine's refusal to buy Russian gas "creates risks for gas transit to Europe."
The gas cutoff comes less than two months after Russia and Ukraine signed an EU-brokered deal aimed at ensuring gas supplies through March.
Relations between Kyiv and Moscow have been soured since Russia annexed the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula of Crimea in 2014 and began supporting separatist militants in eastern Ukraine.
Tensions have been particularly high in recent days after explosions damaged power lines sending electricity from mainland Ukraine to Crimea, plunging much of the peninsula into darkness.