Last night Kiev stopped supplying power to the LPR. Ukrainian side justified this action by Lugansk's accumulated debt. In fact, in addition to social and transport blockades, Ukraine attempted a new, power blockade of Donbass. In Kremlin this step has already been called a move towards separating the Republic from Ukraine.
For humanitarian reasons, Russia already offered its help to the LPR and started supplying its own power to the region. Aleksandr Bilibov is reporting why the electric shock didn't work. We have a baby boy here. He already has a name? Yes, he does. It's Maksim. Maksim is only a few hours old. He and 4 other babies were born into this world in this Lugansk hospital to the sound of a diesel generator. When Ukraine turned off the power at midnight, medical staff turned on the backup power source.
Last time it was used in 2014, when mines were exploding everywhere. We got it as a part of the humanitarian assistance. There were 4 for the region back then. One of them was from Moscow. We put it right here. The power shortage in Lugansk didn't affect the work of hospitals in any way. Here, 2 surgeries were performed this night. 4 more were performed in the morning. All were successful. Doctors keep working right now as well.
Economical, transport, and now power — another Ukrainian blockade was foreseen in the LPR and they were ready for it. At 2 o'clock we turned off the switch in the LPR. We went on to our internal resources. LPR believes that these resources should be enough for a long time. Their neighbors had already reacted, the republic will not stand without power. We have several sources. First, it's the power supply from the Russian Federation. It's the friendly assistance from the DPR. They didn't leave us hanging in our hour of need. The blackout, which Kiev attempted, Donbass calls not just a hard breach of the Minsk Treaty, but an attempt to conceal Ukraine's internal problems.
By blocking the charcoal supply from the southeast, the authorities of the independent nation are now dealing with a deficiency of power supply. Of course it's all connected. Ukraine will definitely suffer loss either way. The main reason it's happening is Kiev's failure to act according to the Minsk Treaty.
The issue of power supply will probably become crucial for tomorrow's meeting of the contact group in Minsk. While negotiators prepare questions for the Kiev authorities, LPR authorities are ready to increase the Republic's power supply. They'll do it because of the new suppliers. Nobody wants to deal with Ukraine anymore here.
