Kiev has declared a state of emergency on the electricity market after months of fighting between pro-Russian rebels and Ukrainian forces disrupted supplies to thermal power plants (TPP), which provide around 40 percent of Ukraine’s electricity.

The power crisis together with an expected shortfall in gas supplies from Russia mean Ukraine faces a winter that Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk said would be “extremely difficult”.

The southern peninsula of Crimea, which depends on Ukraine for around 80 percent of its power, was seized by Russia in March – an annexation Ukraine has refused to recognise.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/09/03/ukraine-crisis-electricity-idUKL5N0R42NQ20140903