Crimea extends school break as Ukrainian strikes leave the peninsula without power
Sergei Aksyonov, the Russia-appointed head of annexed Crimea, has extended the school fall break because of power outages. Russia's Energy Ministry has acknowledged that Ukrainian strikes on energy infrastructure caused the blackout.
Schools in Crimea, the peninsula annexed and controlled by Russia, will stay closed for longer because of power outages. Sergei Aksyonov, the Russia-appointed head of the annexed region, confirmed the extension of the fall school break on Wednesday, November 4. The peninsula has been left without electricity after Ukrainian strikes on energy infrastructure, and the disruption is continuing.
What Aksyonov said
Aksyonov cited "the current difficult situation" as the reason and urged everyone to "be understanding." Classes are expected to resume on November 9. The scheduled fall break in Russian schools in 2026 ran from October 26 to November 3, so lessons would otherwise have restarted right after it ended.
The outages
Crimea lost power overnight on November 3. Regional authorities first said the outage was caused by a failure on the main transmission lines. Outages carried on through November 4, and Russia's Energy Ministry acknowledged that Ukrainian strikes on energy infrastructure were responsible.
Ukraine's campaign
Ukrainian forces began a campaign in June aimed at disrupting Crimea's electricity supply. Since then, the peninsula has repeatedly lost power, which in turn has caused problems with its water supply. The extension of the school break is one of the officially announced consequences of the situation.
