The issue of prolongation of power supplies to Crimea in 2016 is in competence of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC), Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk has said.

"According to the NSDC's decision made six months ago, the energy policy is one of the key issues of national security and defense. It’s reasonably that the decision is to be made by the NSDC," the prime minister said at a press conference in Kyiv on Tuesday.

As reported, earlier NSDC Secretary Oleksandr Turchynov said that the contracts on electric power supplies to Crimean peninsula under jurisdiction of the Cabinet of Ministers.

Yatseniuk in November and December 2015 repeatedly said that the issue of prolonging the contracts on electric power supplies to Crimea is in competence of the NSDC.

In late December 2014, Ukrinterenergo and Inter RAO signed the contract to export electricity from Russia to Ukrainian power grid.

At night on November 22 electricity supplies to Crimea were completely halted due to damage of all four pylons carrying power transmission lines to the peninsula. Power supplies were resumed on December 8 only via the 220-kilovolt Kakhovska-Titan-Krasnoperekopsk transmission line, with a maximum flow capacity of approximately 200 MW.