Crimea faces blackouts and drones in tense summer
Crimea is facing a summer of drone alerts, power cuts and fuel shortages as Ukraine increases attacks on the Russian-annexed peninsula, while many residents and tourism businesses try to continue normal life.
Warnings have become more frequent since Ukraine began ramping up attacks in June, and civilians have been killed and wounded. Crimea's governor Sergei Aksyonov said two people were killed overnight from July 28 to July 29.
Blackouts and fuel shortages are now part of daily life for Crimea's 2.4 million people. The Crimenergo electricity distributor announces daily outages, while authorities have introduced a local state of emergency and halted petrol sales.
In Yalta, Oksana, who runs a grocery store, said she had to keep a generator running to protect her stock. “I have no choice... otherwise the sorbets will melt. This year is just a catastrophe,” she told AFP.
AFP reported that air defence batteries are visible on roads across Crimea, along with blackened electric substations hit by Ukrainian drone strikes. Some gas stations are closed or serving only essential transport. One taxi driver said stations sometimes do not display prices when fuel goes on sale to regular drivers “so as not to annoy people”. A litre of 95-octane unleaded petrol is reported at around 250 rubles, or about $3.
Ukraine has frequently targeted tankers and haulers using the northern route between Crimea and Rostov-on-Don through Russian-controlled southern Ukraine. Fuel tankers are banned from using the Kerch bridge, the road-and-rail link between Crimea and Russia that Ukraine has also targeted.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said last month that Kyiv's aim in Crimea was to “create the conditions under which Russia will be forced to choose peace”. Ukraine also presents its strikes as retribution for Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities.
Russia seized and annexed Crimea in 2014. Almost no other countries recognise the peninsula as Russian, and Ukraine rejects Moscow's claim to it.
Uncertainty notes
The boom heard in Sevastopol was not identified as either an air-defence drill or a Ukrainian drone attack.
There were reports of residents leaving Crimea since the start of the war, but no figures were supplied.
No contingency plan was supplied for what would happen if the Kerch bridge were put out of action again.
Source
AFP news report published on .