Ukrainian strikes knock out power in Russia-held Crimea
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Ukrainian drones have knocked out power in the biggest city in Russian-held Crimea and targeted facilities in central and southern Russia, underscoring the reach of Kyiv’s attacks on energy infrastructure.
Ukraine has intensified strikes on Russian oil refineries, depots and supply routes, pushing up petrol prices in Russia, where authorities have limited sales in some regions.
Fuel shortages have been particularly acute on the Crimean peninsula, which Russia seized and annexed in 2014.
The Russian-installed governor of Sevastopol mandated early closing for public transport and cafes and said street lights would be dimmed to protect the city during overnight attacks.
He said on Wednesday that the latest wave had downed power supplies and that trolley buses would not operate and parents should keep children at home.
Work was ongoing to restore supplies even though Kyiv was “trying to deprive us of our normal living conditions and sow panic”, the governor, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.
Ukraine’s drone forces commander Robert Brovdi said drones had hit the main substation at the Sevastopol power plant in Crimea, which is not recognised as Russian by most countries and which Kyiv has said it will never cede.
In the central Russian region of Nizhny Novgorod, governor Gleb Nikitin said falling Ukrainian drone debris damaged an industrial facility and killed two people.
The unspecified facility was not damaged critically, he said.
The region is home to NORSI, Russia’s fourth-largest oil refinery, one of many large oil plants in central Russia that temporarily halted or scaled back output in May following drone attacks, Reuters has reported.
The Russian ministry of defence said its air defences had shot down 323 drones overnight in regions across the country.
Authorities in Russia’s Orenburg region, more than 1000 km southeast of Moscow, said drones had been downed over an industrial facility.
It was not immediately clear whether any damage occurred in the remote region, which borders Kazakhstan and is home to a number of industrial facilities, including a gas processing plant and an oil refinery.
The Kazakh energy ministry said petrol was being supplied via alternative routes.
Ukraine has said its strategy of targeting Russian energy facilities with long-range drones is aimed at sapping a key source of Russia’s war funds and showing Russians the four-year-old conflict launched by Moscow is no longer distant.
President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday accused Kyiv of trying to destabilise Russian society and said the Russian government would implement additional measures to offset the consequences of the strikes.
Both sides say they do not target civilians but thousands of civilians have been killed in Russian attacks in Ukraine and fatalities have also occurred in Russia.
In Russia’s border Belgorod region, a man was killed and a woman was injured in a drone attack, while in the eastern Ukrainian city of Balakliia Russian shelling killed one person on Wednesday, local authorities said.
Reuters