KIEV, March 23 - Parts of Crimea were hit by power outages late on Sunday and the regional power company blamed them on technical problems in a power line from the Ukrainian mainland to the Black Sea peninsula, which has been wrestled away from Kiev by Moscow.

Local residents said there was no electricity in several cities in Crimea including in some districts of the provincial capital of Simferopol, though the city center was not affected, Reuters reported.

Crimea's power provider Krymenergo said in a statement on its website it introduced partial power cuts after a line operated by Ukraine's national electricity company, Ukrenergo, was hit by a technical fault and went down for repairs.