A sweeping Ukrainian barrage tore into Russian-occupied Crimea today, killing four people, knocking out power in parts of the peninsula and forcing a halt to fuel sales, according to the Moscow-backed authorities who govern the region.
Kyiv said the strikes were aimed at military and energy infrastructure in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that has become a crucial Russian logistics hub for its four-year military campaign, in what appeared to be one of the largest assaults there in recent months.
“As a result of the enemy’s drone attack on the Kerch peninsula, unfortunately, there are casualties among the civilian population,” said Russia-backed Crimea governor Sergey Aksyonov, referring to the part of Crimea that borders Russia.
“According to the latest information, four people were killed, 28 were wounded.”
The large-scale raid also left one person dead on a ferry and struck an oil terminal in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region, which borders Crimea, local authorities said.
Sections of the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014, were left without electricity after the attack, according to local utility company Krymenergo.
In a separate wave of violence, overnight Russian strikes in eastern Ukraine killed three people.
“Last night, our long-range sanctions targeted the occupiers’ military logistics, oil industry and air defence,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on social media.
Ukraine describes such retaliatory strikes on Russia and occupied territory as “long-range sanctions” and says civilians are not the target.
Fuel supplies
“All of this is a just response to Russia’s brutal attacks against our people,” Mr Zelensky continued.
He said Ukrainian forces had also struck the Crimean Bridge linking the peninsula to Russia, along with radar installations and air defence systems.
After expanding its long-range drone capabilities, Kyiv now says it can strike across the land corridor in occupied southeastern Ukraine that Russia relies on to supply Crimea and troops stationed there.
In recent months, Ukraine has also intensified drone attacks on Russian energy infrastructure, reaching targets far beyond the front line.
Earlier this week, it struck a major refinery in Moscow twice.
Kyiv says those attacks are intended to erode the oil revenues Russia uses to finance the war.
Some petrol stations in Russia, the world’s third-biggest oil producer, introduced fuel rationing this month.Fuel exports have been banned since April.
Energy Intelligence, a US-based energy research firm, said earlier this month that about a third of Russian oil-refining capacity had gone offline because of Ukrainian strikes.
Efforts to end Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II remain stalled, while fighting along the front line has largely ground to a halt.
