Three dead as storm hits Russia, Ukraine's Black Sea coast

The government in Crimea told people to stay at home on Monday/AFP

At least three persons were killed after a deadly storm in the Black Sea region flooded roads in Russia-occupied Crimea and Ukraine, as reported by Al Jazeera. Currently, over half a million people are without power in occupied Crimea, Russia, and Ukraine, where the storm has ripped trees and taken down power lines, according to Russian state media and Ukraine's Ministry of Energy.

According to the head of Russia's national meteorological service, the storm that hit Crimea was the most powerful since record-keeping began, state news agency RIA Novosti reported. Reportedly, one person was killed in the resort city of Sochi, another on the Russian-held Crimean Peninsula and a third died on board a vessel in the Kerch Strait, which separates Crimea from the Russian mainland, Russia's local news agency TASS reported.

Moreover, over 2000 towns and villages were living without electricity on Sunday night, whereas, on Monday morning, 16 Ukrainian regions, including Odesa, Mykolaiv, and inland in Kyiv, as trees were uprooted, power lines snapped and electrical substations failed, leaving almost 150,000 households in the area without electricity, Ukraine's Energy Ministry said, reported Al Jazeera.

Meanwhile, Russia's Ministry of Energy said "about 1.9 million people" were affected by power cuts in the southern Russian regions of Dagestan, Krasnodar, and Rostov and the occupied Ukrainian territories of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Zaporizhia and Crimea. Following this, Crimea's Moscow-appointed governor declared a state of emergency, reported Al Jazeera.

Moreover, following the death of three people, and the severity of the storm, hundreds of people have been evacuated. According to Al Jazeera, a 110-metre (360ft) chimney of a heat and power plant collapsed in the Ukrainian port city of Odesa on Sunday night, adding to Ukraine's losses of energy infrastructure. Odesa has already sustained heavy damage from Moscow's military campaign targeting Ukraine's power grid.

Recently, Russia has been attacking civilian infrastructure far from the front lines and has left millions of Ukrainians without power, heat, and water for days at a time. However, the heating supply has been restored after plants in Odesa shut down for several hours due to power fluctuations, reported Al Jazeera. Moreover, Ukrainian officials said that they expect the weather to worsen further as forecasters predicted more strong winds and snowfall.

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