- Category
- World
Landline Payphones Return to Crimea as Blackouts Sever Communications
Prefer U24 Media on Google
- Authors
![Photo of Katherina Popilnichenko]( "Photo of Katherina Popilnichenko")
-c439b7bd9030ecf9d5a4287dc361ba31.jpg "Photo of Katherina Popilnichenko")
Street landline payphones are being installed across temporarily occupied Crimea to maintain emergency access as regular power outages and mobile network disruptions affect the peninsula.
The first public phones appeared in Dzhankoi, where cellular networks are switched on only 2 times a day for 4 hours at a time, with devices located on Kutuzov, Vostochnaya, Internatsionalna, Tolstoy, and Karl Marx streets, as well as on Theater Square in Yevpatoria, according to The Moscow Times on July 20.
We bring you stories from the ground. Your support keeps our team in the field.
The street phones allow free access to the 112 emergency service, fire departments, police, medical aid, and gas repair teams without needing power grid electricity or mobile service.
Disruptions have lasted over 12 days in several regions, forcing officials to cancel scheduled "2 through 6" hour power rotation models after overnight drone strikes on July 20 hit 7 substations.
Blackouts and water supply shortages are currently affecting multiple towns and cities, including Dzhankoi, Yevpatoria, Alushta, Feodosia, Kerch, Simferopol, Sudak, Armyansk, Krasnoperekopsk, and Yalta. The Russian-installed "head" of the region, Sergey Aksyonov, stated that establishing accurate electricity schedules across the territory is impossible under current conditions.
He noted that street lighting is being reduced across all municipalities and that generators are being delivered to areas where blackouts have extended past 12 days.
In Sevastopol, local occupation authorities acknowledged that maintaining the previous "2 through 6" schedule, which provided 2 hours of power followed by 6 hours of outages, is no longer viable.
Officials stopped providing estimates for restoring power and advised residents to monitor news through radio broadcasts and use public stations to charge mobile phones.
Wide-scale disruptions to regional utilities began in late June following strikes on electrical substations, oil infrastructure, and supply lines. Regional authorities declared a state of emergency on June 26, though infrastructure strikes have continued on a regular basis.
Similar measures regarding public communications have been discussed in Russia. Members of the State Duma previously suggested reviving national payphone networks due to mobile network shutoffs attributed to anti-drone measures, with parliamentary committee member Igor Antropenko describing the issue as "urgently ripe."
On July 2, Commander of Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces Robert Brovdi said Ukrainian drone units had disabled 12 electrical substations and one gas distribution station across temporarily occupied regions over a 48-hour period.
According to Brovdi, the operation targeted critical energy infrastructure in the occupied territories, significantly disrupting the regional power grid. Among the targets were high-voltage substations in temporarily occupied Crimea, the Starobesheve Thermal Power Plant substation in temporarily occupied Donetsk region, a gas distribution station and an electrical substation in temporarily occupied Luhansk region, and a fuel and lubricants depot in temporarily occupied Melitopol.
Discuss this article:
