A “mega-storm” caused four deaths in Russia, Crimea and other occupied regions of Ukraine where two million people are without electricity, the press and the authorities reported on Monday, November 27.
Power was also cut in more than 2,000 localities in unoccupied areas, whose electrical installations are regularly targeted by Russian forces.
It was in Crimea annexed in 2014 by Moscow, as well as in southern Russia and the partially occupied Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson, that the bad weather was the most violent, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense. energy.
The body of a man was found in Sochi, a popular seaside resort, according to regional authorities, who recommended residents not to approach the shore.
Another man who had gone “watch the waves” died, announced Oleg Krioutchkov, advisor to the governor of Crimea, on public television.
One person was also killed on board a boat in the Kerch Strait, between the peninsula and Russia, and a body was discovered in Novorossiysk, in the Krasnodar region, according to Russian news agencies.
At 8 a.m. Paris time, “around 1.9 million people” were deprived of electricity in these regions “due to unfavorable weather conditions”, specifies the Russian Ministry of Energy in a press release. According to the energy company Krymenergo, 400,000 people are affected in Crimea. Sergei Aksionov, the leader of the “Republic of Crimea”, declared a state of emergency.
“Armageddon”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his government to take measures to help residents of the affected regions, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced.
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In the Krasnodar region, where the seaside resorts of Sochi and Anapa are located, hundreds of trees as well as numerous metal constructions were uprooted by the wind during the night from Sunday to Monday, causing injuries, ‘after the local branch of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry, which reported injuries.
In Vitiazevo, near Anapa, the storm caused the stranding of the Blue Shark, a Belize-flagged cargo ship, she adds.
The Caspian Pipeline Consortium announced the suspension of oil loading and sheltering of its vessels due to “extremely unfavorable weather conditions”wind gusts of up to 86 kilometers per hour and waves reaching eight meters high.
“We have experienced a real Armageddon: the inhabitants do not remember having ever seen wind and waves of such power”the speaker of the Crimean parliament, Vladimir Konstantinov, told the Rossia 24 television channel.
In Sevastopol, floods caused the death of half a thousand animals in the local aquarium, city governor Mikhail Razvojaev reports on Telegram.
According to him, the weather forecast is hardly reassuring, with rain, snow and wind gusts of more than 100 kilometers per hour expected during the day in Crimea.