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Kyiv's arrests and energy emergency, March 2018
Summary
A look back at 8 March 2018, when the detention of a prisoner-release campaigner coincided with an emergency energy plan.
What was happening in Ukraine on 8 March 2018? Two separate stories stood out in the politics of the day.
On 8 March 2018, Volodymyr Ruban, head of the Centre for the Liberation of Prisoners, was detained at the Maiorske crossing point. He was held while allegedly attempting to carry weapons and ammunition illegally out of the area of the Anti-Terrorist Operation (ATO).
An energy plan already in force
Six days earlier, on 2 March 2018, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine had introduced a national action plan for five days. Its aim was to prevent an energy crisis after Russia's Gazprom refused to supply gas.
The measures included switching generating companies from gas to fuel oil and suspending the work of educational institutions.
Two pressures at once
The two developments were unconnected. Taken together, they show a government dealing with an emergency energy plan while a figure associated with the release of prisoners was in detention over alleged arms transport from the ATO zone.
