Crimea hit by multiple sanctions as power, transport and banking communications are cut off

International
debit and credit card Visa Inc stopped supporting the processing of
cards, citing a week-old set of sanctions by the U.S. Government. All
U.S.-registered companies were prohibited from investing in Crimean
and operating there, including providing services. This ban is a
part of a large package of sanctions imposed by the United States.

“We
can no longer support card issuing and merchant/ATM acquiring
services in Crimea,” the company said in a statement, quoted by
Reuters.

In
the meantime, Ukraine cut power and cancelled transport
communications to Crimea on the same day, operator companies said in
their statements. 

DTEK, a private energy holding that belongs to
Ukraine’s richest man Rinat Akhmetov, said it was ordered to cut
power supplies to Crimea by the national regulator Ukrenergo.

“At
13:50 the transmission power line … Kakhovskaya- Dzhankoi, which
was at this point the only line feeding Crimea, has been switched off
by the order of NAK Ukrenergo,” the company said.

Previously,
the company had made short, temporary power cuts in Crimea and other
regions due to shortages in production of energy across Ukraine.

Prime
Minister Arseniy Yatsenyk warned at a Cabinet meeting on Dec. 24 that
“if the temperatures go down, meaning that consumption of gas and
coal increase, blackouts will be massive. The only thing that is
saving us is the temperature.”

Since
his speech, the weather turned in Ukraine, and temperatures dropped
from about 5-7 degrees Cencius to below zero. The weather is set to
worsen over the next few days, according to the state meteorological
service,
which issued a storm warning for many regions.

In
the meantime, the national railways Ukrzaliznytsia said in its own
statement that it has canceled cargo trains to the Crimean peninsula
as of Dec. 26, and will suspend passenger trains in the next few
days, citing unspecified security concerns.

“To
ensure the safety of travel, Ukrzaliznytsia is limiting the route of
trains to Crimea to Novooleksiyivka and Kherson (on mainland
Ukraine),” the company said in a statement.

Just
hours later, a similar statement was issued by the State Inspection for
Road Safety, which warned that all bus routes between Crimea and
mainland Ukraine have been halted, and the sale of tickets stopped
for an unspecified period.

The
agency also said it was done “with the aim of avoiding threats to
life and health of passengers.”