A senior Ukrainian government representatives said Ukraine isn't doing much to repair the damaged pylons because Kiev hopes to squeeze out concessions from Russia, while Moscow's involved in a conflict with Turkey after its Air Force shot down a Russian Su-24 bomber on Tuesday.
"The Ukrainian government appears to be trying to make Crimea an expensive burden for Moscow," Tucker wrote for Politico.
Furthermore, the Ukrainian government fears that if Crimea falls off of the current international agenda, after a certain amount of time the West would recognize the peninsula as a part of Russia, the author said.
Earlier this week, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak said that Moscow could respond to the Crimean blackout by halting coal deliveries to Ukraine.
Last week, some 2.5 million Crimeans were left without electricity after the electric power lines were blown up in southern Ukraine.
Following the blackout, Crimea declared a state of emergency and switched to locally-based emergency power generation.
Since then the Russian Emergencies Ministry sent electricity generators to the peninsula.