Ukraine's maintenance crews stand ready to restore electricity supplies to Crimea within four days if they are granted access to the site where the damaged power lines are located, a country's senior energy official said here Sunday.

"It will take about 24 hours to repair one of the less-affected power lines and from two to four days to restore three other lines," Yuri Kasich, a deputy head of Ukrainian state-run energy company Ukrenergo, told a media briefing.

He said that the site, where the electricity pylons were reportedly blown up, is currently controlled by the "unknown people," who have blocked the access for the maintenance crews.

On late Saturday, about 1.8 million people in the Crimean peninsula were left without electricity after unidentified offenders damaged four transmission pylons in Kherson region of southern Ukraine.

Ukrainian Interior Ministry said it has opened criminal investigation into the incident. It, however, gave no details on possible organizers of the attack on power lines. Endit

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