Crimea is rocked by a massive power outage

The news agency Kryminform reported on Wednesday that the entire peninsula of Crimea lost power around 3:25 p.m., local time. “All Crimea and Sevastopol are without power. It's down everywhere. We're looking into the cause,” a source told the website. Locals have also reported problems with mobile phone service.

Kubanenergo (the Kuban Power and Electrification Open Joint Stock Company) confirmed a large-scale “technical shutdown” of the power line that feeds electricity to the Crimean peninsula, telling Kryminform that it expects to fix the issue within three hours.

A source in Russia's emergency management service told the news agency TASS that the reason for the power outage is apparently an accident at the “Taman” substation in the Krasnodar Territory.

Update: The electricity has started returning to several of Crimea's biggest cities.