A large-scale Ukrainian drone attack on Russian-occupied Crimea has left Sevastopol, the peninsula's largest city, without electricity after strikes on its main power substation. The Moscow-installed governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev, confirmed the damage on Telegram and warned that some areas would remain without power until Wednesday evening, urging residents to conserve mobile phone battery life and check on elderly neighbours during temperatures expected to reach 30°C.
Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces commander Robert Brovdi said the overnight operation targeted 48 military sites across Crimea. Explosions were also reported in Bakhchisarai, Kerch, and near Mount Ai-Petri, where a battalion of Russia's Aerospace Forces is based. Outages were additionally reported in other parts of Crimea following a drone strike on a power plant there. Russia's defence ministry claimed its air defences had intercepted and destroyed more than 300 Ukrainian drones overnight.
Crimea — a peninsula on the northern coast of the Black Sea — was annexed by Russia in 2014 in a move that remains unrecognised by the international community, which continues to regard it as Ukrainian territory. Since then it has been connected to Russia via road and rail links, including a bridge across the Kerch Strait. Ukraine has been systematically targeting those connections and the peninsula's infrastructure in recent months, and Sevastopol is already experiencing fuel shortages severe enough that Russian-installed authorities suspended public petrol sales over the weekend, reserving remaining supplies for government services. Panic buying has been reported in local shops.
The attacks are part of a broader Ukrainian strategy to degrade Russian logistics and energy infrastructure in occupied territories, with Kyiv also targeting facilities deeper inside Russia. On Thursday, a Ukrainian drone strike hit an oil refinery in the Moscow region, and Ukrainian drones have also struck a gas processing facility in the Orenburg region on the Volga, far from the front lines. Kyiv's stated aim is to damage Russian energy revenues and increase pressure on President Vladimir Putin to enter ceasefire talks.
The escalation comes at a diplomatically charged moment. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky sent an open letter to Putin in early June calling for direct face-to-face negotiations, but Putin rejected both the request for a meeting and the idea of a ceasefire preceding peace talks. Meanwhile, senior Russian officials have publicly accused Washington of failing to honour commitments made at a summit between Putin and US President Donald Trump, signalling growing frustration in Moscow. European leaders are due to meet in Berlin to coordinate their Ukraine policy ahead of an upcoming NATO summit, with discussions expected to cover continued military support and the continent's broader security responsibilities.