Crimea official says Ukraine has cut off power again, Interfax reports

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A Crimean official said on Thursday that Ukraine had cut off a major source of electrical power to the region, a month after saboteurs first plunged the Russian-annexed peninsula into darkness.

Kirill Moskalenko, a spokesman of the governor of Sevastopol city, said Ukraine has cut off the Kakhovka?Titan line to Crimea.

"The line has supplied the peninsula with 250 megawatts. Due to the lack of power supply, Sevastopol is receiving 150 megawatts instead of 195 megawatts," Moskalenko said, according to Interfax. Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, needs around 1 gigawatt of power.

Electrical power to Crimea was shut off at the end of November when saboteurs blew up pylons in southern Ukraine which supported the four lines that supplied Crimea with the bulk of its power. Ukraine nationalists then blocked access to the site and prevented Ukrainian energy workers from repairing them.

The saboteurs have not been identified. Crimean Tatars were prominent members of the group blockading the site, but they denied they had anything to do with blowing up the pylons.

The power cuts affected some 2 million people, who had to use emergency generators for electricity. Power was partly restored after about two weeks, the Russian Energy Ministry said.

(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin, editing by Larry King)