A Shanghai-based engineering company has denied accusations that it helped Russia lay undersea cables in Crimea, saying it has not received any notice of action from Ukraine.
A Voice of America (VOA) report on Sunday said Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office has begun to investigate the Shanghai Foundation Engineering Group for laying cables in the Black Sea to supply power to the Crimean Peninsula which suffered a week-long power cut.
More than 60 Chinese technicians and workers on the company's ship, Jian Ji-3001, are involved in the case and could face a sentence of up to five years in jail, according to the VOA.
The Shanghai company denied the report on Monday, saying that although the company owns the ship, it has been rented out.
The company told the Global Times that the ship has been rented by a third party which has neither administrative nor property relations with the company, and it did not provide crew on the ship.
Crimea's two million residents have been greatly affected since the pylons were damaged on November 22, with anti-Russian activists being blamed, the BBC reported on Monday.
The loss of power to Crimea has sparked a reduction in coal supplies to Ukraine from Russia and from the pro-Russian rebel-held eastern Ukraine, the BBC reported.
