Ukraine [a] is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest country in Europe after Russia, estimated total population of 32.3 million in 2026. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has fired his armed forces commander-in-chief, General Oleksandr Syrskyi, following days of mass. Ukraine, country located in eastern Europe, the second largest on the continent after Russia. Ukrainian officials state the strategic goal is to “isolate Crimea” and turn the occupied peninsula into an unsustainable military “island”. Ukraine attacks on Russian-occupied Crimea trigger power cuts in Sevastopol
The largest city on the Russia-controlled peninsula has been left without power after attack on energy facilities there.
Ukrainian strikes on Russian-occupied Crimea have triggered power outages in its largest city, Sevastopol, according to statements from both sides, as Kyiv intensifies attacks on the peninsula Moscow annexed in 2014. Crimea halts fuel sales after Ukraine strikes cause shortages sales in Russian-controlled Crimea have halted after Ukrainian drone strikes on the peninsula’s supply route. Drivers are now looking for other modes of transport. Sevastopol’s Moscow-installed governor, Mikhail Razvozhayev, who reported power cuts after Ukraine attacked energy facilities there, urged residents on Wednesday to help vulnerable neighbours and reserve phones for emergency communication to save batteries and avoid overloading the grid.
“The enemy is once again striking treacherously, attempting to deprive us of normal living conditions and sow panic,” he posted.
He said some areas of the city – where temperatures are approaching 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) – would be without power until at least Wednesday evening.
Trolleybuses in Sevastopol will not operate on Wednesday, Razvozhayev said, as he also asked parents to keep children at home.
Russian-held parts of Ukraine’s nearby Kherson region were also partially or fully cut off from power, the Moscow-installed Governor Vladimir Saldo said separately.
Saldo did not provide further details.
Separate Ukrainian drone attacks killed two people in Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region, hundreds of kilometres from the front line, and one in the border region of Belgorod, the local governors reported.
Hundreds of drones destroyed
Russia’s defence ministry said the country’s forces had destroyed more than 300 drones from Ukraine overnight, with the warring neighbours having stepped up strikes in recent weeks.
Kyiv’s air force said on Wednesday that Russian forces launched 101 drones at Ukraine overnight, of which 95 were destroyed. Ukrainian Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said last week that his forces are “isolating Crimea with drones”.
“It looks like in the nearest time, Crimea will become an island. This could lead to some very unexpected consequences for Russians,” Fedorov said on a blogger’s YouTube channel.
US-led talks on ending Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II have remained in effect frozen, with Washington’s attention diverted towards the Middle East since launching strikes on Iran in late February. The latest updates on the strikes and subsequent power crises reveal several key developments:
⚡ Extensive Grid Destruction and Total Blackouts
Massive Waves of Attacks: In a series of highly ambitious single-night operations, Ukraine deployed hundreds of kamikaze air and naval drones. One massive wave knocked the entire peninsula off the power grid, causing a total electricity failure for 2.5 million residents.
In brief: Ukrainian kamikaze drones (450-600+) caused a total blackout across occupied Crimea in Kyiv’s largest single-night power grid attack, hitting substations, military bases, and ports. Partial blackouts struck Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and Donetsk regions; deep strikes hit Russian oil sites. Russia claimed 519 drones downed.
Ukrainian kamikaze drones blacked out the entire Russia-occupied territory of Crimea on Monday in Kyiv’s most ambitious single-night attack against Russian power grid infrastructure of the war so far.
A total loss of electricity service was reported across the Crimean peninsula, a Black Sea territory roughly the size of Wales or Vermont, with a population of 2.5 million and land space of about 27,000 square kilometers (10,000 square miles) in size. Another 3-3.5 million electricity users in Russia-occupied parts of Ukraine’s southern Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions suffered partial blackouts or limited power following the intense and by some measures unprecedented Ukrainian night strikes targeting power substations and power distribution networks, along with military bases and port infrastructure. Three targets deep inside the Russian Federation were also hit on the night. The wide-ranging air raids, combining at least eight separate strike packages, killed one civilian in Russia-occupied territory and injured nine, local officials said.
The robot aircraft assaults took place as the Kremlin launched a deadly missile+drone barrage against the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, hitting civilian residences and military infrastructure. According to reports mid-Monday, 12 Ukrainian civilians died in the Russian attacks and more than 40 were injured.
The casualty count was expected to climb because emergency response teams were still sifting through the debris of apartment buildings hit by Russian missiles and more bodies were likely to be found, those reports said. Ukraine’s drone barrage, based on reports, was likely carried out by between 450 and 650 aircraft aiming at targets across Russia-occupied territory in Ukraine and within the Russian Federation. The semi-official Russian news agency Interfax, along with independent Russian news platforms and Ukrainian OSINT groups tracking the regions, all confirmed the fact of the strikes and wide-reaching blackouts afterwards. A Russian Defense Ministry statement on Monday claimed its forces had shot down 519 drones on the night. Russia’s wartime record claim for Ukrainian drones shot down dates to 660 aircraft reportedly downed on June 25-26.
In the Sunday-to-Monday attacks, about two-thirds of the Ukrainian drones attacked power grid infrastructure in Crimea or in adjacent territories or military-related facilities nearby, Kyiv Post review of eyewitness accounts and news reports concluded.
The Ukrainians’ primary target was a major electricity substation serving the Crimean capital city Simferopol and surrounding regions near a village called Strohanivka. Russian social media and Ukrainian news reports confirmed at least four hits to the 330 KW station and fires still burning there by midday. Ukrainian drones hit the facility previously on June 25.
Russia’s Hvardiiske air base, a major military aviation facility adjacent to Simferopol, was hit as well. Ukrainian and Russian milbloggers reported that drones attacked air defense systems positioned around the airfield and possible munitions storage sites. Ukrainian strike planners in the past have employed the tactic of sending drones to attack Russian missile and gun air defense emplacements in tandem with strikes targeting energy or military infrastructure. Midday satellite imagery showed two fires burning at the airfield. In an attack against Hvardiiske airfield taking place overnight Friday to Saturday, drones flown by operators from Ukraine’s defense intelligence, HUR, one or two kamikaze drones destroyed a Russian MiG-29 fighter as it was being refueled.
A statement from the Ukrainian General Staff said that launch ramps and aircraft storage at the airfield used by Russian forces to fly kamikaze Shahed drones to hit civilian targets in Ukraine, and air defense system, were also hit.
Mikhail Razvozhayev, Kremlin-appointed head of the Crimean naval port city Sevastopol, in a Monday announcement, said that “technological disruptions in high-voltage networks caused by ‘external influences’ [an official Russian euphemism for Ukrainian drone strikes]” had knocked some networks offline and killed a city resident. He said authorities had the situation in hand and promised the lights would be on soon in all city districts.
Sergey Aksyonov, Russia-appointed head of Crimea, in a statement, said that the Ukrainian drone strikes had caused “some difficulties” for Crimea residents and visitors, and warned power deliveries would not be back to normal for the time being. The local power company Krymenergo, was responding to customers with a recording stating officials are aware of the electricity outages and that they are working on the problem. Hotel operators and local officials in the Crimean resort towns of Alushta and Yalta on Monday reported minimal electricity deliveries, forcing rolling blackouts, and new damage to local power lines caused by drones. Ukrainian drones overnight Sunday-Monday carried out at least six major air raids outside Crimea. One hit Kerch port, adjacent to the strategically critical Kerch Strait and the road/rail bridge connecting the occupied Crimea peninsula with the Russian mainland. Krymsky Veter, an Azov region news platform, reported and published images of the Kerch port oil and gas terminal on fire. Overhead imagery showed fires in the vicinity.
Two drone strike packages hit the Azov Sea port of Mariupol on Monday at 1:30 a.m. and 4:30 a.m. Mariupol social media reported drone streams passing overhead at sunrise and heading eastward. Social media video geolocated to Mariupol showed FP-1 drones, a workhorse aircraft employed by Ukraine’s drone forces since 2024, flying at 300-400 meters (984-1,313 feet) above ground level (AGL) and no anti-aircraft fire.
According to early Russian social media reports, the drone stream’s target was in the vicinity of the Russian port of Taganrog. The US worldwide satellite fire monitoring network, FIRMS, on Monday morning showed three major fires covering a collective 2 square kilometers (.8 square miles) of territory burning in a Taganrog industrial district. In the Azov Sea seaside resort city Berdiansk, between midnight and 1 a.m., a single powerful explosion was reported in the vicinity of the city’s cable factory, a Soviet-era facility in the past according to Ukrainian reports, used by Russian forces as an equipment storage site, combat and logistics vehicle parking lot and command center. FIRMS and local news reports confirmed a major fire on the premises.
Russian officials in occupied southern Ukraine confirmed partial power outages in Berdiansk, Mariupol, and surrounding communities.
Major Robert Brovdi, commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces (USF), in a Sunday statement published on the USF website, said his operators’ top target priority was rendering the power grid infrastructure in “annexed Crimea” and adjacent territories inoperable.
“The Crimean power switch is in the ‘off’ mode. This isn’t about turning off the electricity, but about dismantling the enemy’s military rear services in Crimea: A total collapse of air defenses, logistical and fuel shortages, power hubs and communications are completely offline, and the gradual isolation of the [Russian] military presence on the peninsula,” Brovdi wrote. “[The objective is] the complete exodus of colonizers and collaborators. It’s time for them to pack their bags and head to the train station – to Russia.” USF air raids knocked off 12 of the region’s power substations or major power line hubs, in the past 48 hours, he said, and since June 1, USF drones have shut down 37 sites, Brovdi said.
USF video published since June 4 have confirmed most of Brovdi’s claims by geo-location, with about 90% of attacks hitting sites in Crimea and 10% in the Kherson region north of the peninsula. Some images showed kamikaze drones diving in to make two or three attacks on a single, already-burning substation.
Ukrainian kamikaze drones also hit an oil refinery in the central Russian city of Yaroslavl and the other, the Baltic Sea Ust-Luga oil loading terminal, and the adjacent Vysotsk seaport, both near Russia’s second-biggest city, St. Petersburg.
Yaroslavl is approximately 700 kilometers (435 miles) from Ukraine’s border and Ust-Luga is approximately 900 kilometers (560 miles) from Ukraine’s border. Both sites have been attacked by Ukrainian drone forces repeatedly.
Ust-Luga in March was hit five times over a ten-day stretch. Yaroslavl’s oil refinery or infrastructure support has been hit at least nine times in 2026, Kyiv Post records showed. FIRMS imagery from Monday showed fires covering more than a square kilometer at both locations.
Systematic Substation Targeting: Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces have struck dozens of critical energy facilities. Kerch, [a] also known as Kerich, [b] is a city on the Kerch Peninsula in the east of Crimea. It has a population of 147,033 (2014 Census). Kerch was a transshipment point for cargoes entering the Sea of Azov. Its large iron-ore deposits were first exploited in the late 19th century; held 4–11 February 1945, was the World War II meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union to discuss. The Yalta Conference took place in a Russian resort town in the Crimea from February 4–11, 1945, during World War Two. The Yalta Conference took place February 4–11, 1945, in Yalta, Crimea. It was a major World War II conference of Allied leaders. The fortress is a must-visit if you find yourself in Sudak. There is an excellent lookout over the city, a small museum inside the fortress. A city of antiquity, today it is a popular resort, best known for its Genoese fortress, the best preserved on the northern shore of the Black Sea. Sudak is an ancient city on the southeastern coast of Crimea, with a rich history spanning over 1800 years.
Severing the “Energy Bridge”: Drone strikes successfully targeted and severed the PP2 Crimea crossing point of the Kuban-Crimean power bridge. This critical junction receives underwater cables from mainland Russia and converts them to overhead lines, effectively cutting off Crimea’s main external power supplement.
Thermal Power Plants Hit: Drone strikes damaged critical infrastructure at the Tavriyska and Balaclava thermal power plants. Experts note that the damage to specialized military-grade energy equipment could take months to repair. Crimea now ‘zone of constant losses’ SBU says, after strikes on Russian air defenses, military airfields struck Russian air defense systems and military airfield infrastructure in occupied Crimea, as well as strategic industrial facilities in Russia’s Orenburg Oblast, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Special Operations Forces said on June 24.
Drone operators from the “Alpha” Special Operations Center carried out strikes on infrastructure in the Kerch Strait area, as well as at the Saky and Hvardiiske military.
The operation damaged four aircraft storage hangars at the Saky military airfield. Near Kerch, Ukrainian forces also struck two components of a Russian S-400 air defense system and two Pantsir-S1 air defense systems.
“Russian occupiers are losing control of Crimea’s skies,” the SBU said.
The confirmation follows overnight reports of explosions and widespread power outages across occupied Crimea. Monitoring channels also reported strikes against energy infrastructure on the peninsula and a gas processing plant in Russia’s Orenburg Oblast. Half of Crimea without electricity after Ukrainian strikes, Russian proxy claims outages in Russian-occupied Crimea have left approximately half of the peninsula without electricity, occupation authority spokesperson Oleg Kryuchkov reported on June 23.
Ukraine destroys key logistics bridge in Crimea, hits over 60 Russian military targets overnight rises over the Kerch Thermal Power Plant in Russian-occupied Crimea after fuel reservoirs were struck in a large-scale Ukrainian attack overnight on June 23, 2026. A railway bridge across the North Crimean Canal, fuel facilities, and military infrastructure across occupied Crimea were struck in a large-scale overnight Ukrainian operation, Ukrainian military officials said on June 23.
Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces struck the railway bridge across the North Crimean Canal in the settlement of Razdolne overnight on June 22 for the first time, targeting a key route used to transport heavy cargo, including supplies for the Russian army. After railway repair equipment arrived at the site, Ukrainian forces, together with members of local pro-Ukrainian resistance networks, carried out a second phase of the operation. On the night of June 23, Special Operations Forces drones struck both the repair equipment and the remaining sections of the damaged bridge.
“The railway bridge across the North Crimean Canal in Crimea no longer exists,” the statement read. According to Brovdi, the targets in occupied Crimea included three Orion reconnaissance and strike drones, a Nebo-U radar station, a Pantsir-S1 air defense system, an S-300 launcher and a ZU-23 anti-aircraft gun.
The commander also reported strikes against fuel reservoirs at the Kerch Thermal Power Plant, the Simferopol gas distribution station, and the West Crimea 330/110 kV electrical substation. Reports of explosions and fires emerged across Crimea overnight. Telegram monitoring group Crimean Wind, citing satellite fire-detection data, fires at the Port Kavkaz oil terminal and at the Yuzhna railway station in Kerch. The monitoring channel Supernova+ also explosions across Crimea and said a strike had targeted the TES-Terminal oil products storage and transshipment complex.
The Kerch Bridge was closed to vehicle traffic at around 11:30 p.m. local time on June 22 and remained shut for more than five hours before reopening at 5:10 a.m. the following morning, according to Russian-operated traffic monitoring channels.
Following Ukrainian attacks in several Crimean settlements, including Yevpatoriia, Saky, Dzhankoi, and Krasnoperekopsk, widespread power outages were reported. Yet the local energy operator claimed the disruptions were due to “technical faults.” Commander Robert “Madyar” Brovdi said the attack struck fuel reservoirs at the Kerch Thermal Power Plant, the Simferopol gas distribution station, and the West Crimea 330/110 kV electrical substation. The attacks have exacerbated fuel shortages on the peninsula and mounted pressure on the power grid. Rolling blackouts will be introduced in response, Kryuchkov told the news outlet Crimea 24.
“We are seeing almost daily attacks on Crimea’s energy infrastructure,” Kryuchkov said.
“There is maneuvering and redistribution of power. Preventive load shedding schedules have been introduced: if there is an overload in the Crimean power grid, they will be implemented periodically, everything depends on the situation.”
Ukraine struck Russian air defense systems and military airfield infrastructure in occupied Crimea, as well as strategic industrial facilities in Russia’s Orenburg Oblast, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Special Operations Forces said on June 24.
Drone operators from the “Alpha” Special Operations Center carried out strikes on infrastructure in the Kerch Strait area, as well as at the Saky and Hvardiiske military airfields
Thermal Power Plants Hit: Drone strikes damaged critical infrastructure at the Tavriyska and Balaclava thermal power plants. Experts note that the damage to specialized military-grade energy equipment could take months to repair.
Humanitarian Impact and Fuel Shortages
- State of Emergency: Russian-installed officials declared a formal state of emergency across Crimea due to the unrelenting nature of the grid attacks. Local authorities have warned citizens that power cannot be reliably restored because maintenance crews face continuous strikes.
- Public Utility Collapse: The rolling blackouts have severely disabled local water supply pumping stations. Major cities have had to suspend public transport, including electric tram services in Yevpatoria, and completely shut off street lighting to conserve what little energy remains.
- Severe Fuel Rationing: Ukraine has used AI-guided terminal drones to choke off ground supply lines, setting several fuel transport ferries on fire and targeting incoming fuel trucks. Consequently, gas stations across Crimea have run dry, prompting strict fuel restrictions per vehicle.
- Civilian Exodus: The combination of zero electricity, water shortages, and fuel rationing has led to massive traffic queues at the Kerch Bridge as residents and tourists attempt to flee to southern Russia.
Simultaneous Strikes on Airfields and Shipping
While targeting energy nodes, Ukraine has concurrently expanded its focus to disable Russian defenses securing the peninsula:
Airbase Devastation: Drone packages breached local electronic warfare systems to hit the Saki military airbase. The strikes damaged or completely destroyed at least seven advanced Russian fighter jets (including Su-30 and Su-30SM models) inside their hangars. Blackouts in Crimea as Kyiv hits military targets across occupied Ukraine overnight purports to be the aftermath of a reported Ukrainian strike on an electric substation in Bakhchysarai, Crimea overnight on July 5, 2026.
Ukraine’s General Staff said its forces struck an airfield, ammunition depots, and bridges across occupied Ukraine overnight on July 5.
Separately, Robert Brovdi, commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces Kyiv had hit 16 power stations across Crimea over the past 48 hours, causing blackouts across the occupied peninsula.
Ukraine regularly strikes military infrastructure deep within occupied territories in an effort to diminish Moscow’s ability to continue waging its war. Kyiv has stepped up attacks in recent months, with a particular focus on Russian logistics and energy infrastructure.
Ukraine’s general staff struck the Hvardiiske airfield in Crimea, two bridges used for logistics in Donetsk Oblast, and ammunition depots in occupied areas of Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kherson Oblasts. “Hvardiiske airfield is one of the key military airfields of the Russian Federation in the temporarily occupied Crimean peninsula,” Ukraine’s general staff wrote on Telegram.
“It is used for basing operational-tactical and naval aircraft, ensuring combat sorties, logistics, and technical maintenance of aviation equipment,” they added.
Brovdi posted a list of the 16 substations and transformers targeted in Crimea, along with a video that appeared to show footage of the strikes and satellite imagery comparing nighttime light levels on the peninsula on July 3 with the same view a year earlier — showing a marked drop in illumination.
Telegram news channel Exilenova Plus earlier that substations were targeted in a Ukrainian overnight attack.
Black Sea Chokehold: Operating alongside aerial strikes, Ukrainian naval drone units launched an intense maritime blitz in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov, disabling or destroying dozens of Russian vessels, including shadow-fleet oil tankers attempting to smuggle fuel into the peninsula.
