Crimea blackouts and drones disrupt summer life

Blackouts, fuel shortages and Ukrainian drone attacks are disrupting daily life in Russian-annexed Crimea during the summer holiday season, as Kyiv escalates strikes on the peninsula's fuel and electrical facilities.

Warnings have become more frequent since Ukraine increased attacks in June. Crimea's Moscow-installed governor Sergei Aksyonov said two people were killed last week and four more on Monday. The city's governor said Tuesday that an unidentified soldier killed four people, including three civilians, in a gun attack.

Electricity distributor Crimenergo announces daily power outages on its website. Local authorities have introduced a state of emergency and halted petrol sales, while seaside resorts, businesses and hotels that can afford them are using generators.

Closed gas stations and substations with blackened facades are visible across parts of the peninsula. Fuel tankers are banned from using the Kerch bridge, the 19-kilometre road-and-rail link between Crimea and Russia. Ukraine has targeted the bridge several times, including in a 2022 truck bomb attack.

A taxi driver said some stations do not display prices when fuel is available for regular drivers. The driver said a litre of 95-octane unleaded petrol costs about 250 rubles, roughly three to four times its previous price.

Ukraine frequently targets tankers and hauliers travelling on the northern route between Crimea and Rostov-on-Don through Russian-controlled southern Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said last month that Kyiv's aim in Crimea was to create conditions under which Russia would be forced to choose peace.

Russia seized and annexed Crimea in 2014. Almost no other countries recognise the peninsula as Russian. Ukraine rejects Moscow's claim to Crimea, and most of the international community does not recognise Russian rule there.