Wave after wave of strikes that have caused fuel shortages and power outages on the Russia-annexed Crimean Peninsula will prove a “psychological breaking point” for Moscow, according to the commander of Ukraine’s drone forces.
Alongside its wider campaign of drone strikes deep inside Russia, Ukraine has stepped up its effort to isolate Crimea and has, for weeks, been striking a key highway linking the mainland with the peninsula, precipitating a fuel crisis that led to miles-long lineups for gas before civilian fuel sales were completely halted Sunday.
Ukraine is after “total resource and logistical exhaustion,” Robert Brovdi, the commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, said in a Telegram post Sunday, adding that it was targeting Crimea’s transport, energy and tourism sectors.
Addressing Russian President Vladimir Putin directly, he added: “It will never be the same again.”
Putin, who has called Crimea a “sacred place,” illegally annexed the diamond-shaped Black Sea peninsula in 2014 after Russian troops in uniforms without insignia overran it. Only a few countries, including North Korea, recognized it.
Its occupation was a key symbolic victory for the Russian president and is viewed by many in Ukraine as a precursor to his eventual full-scale invasion in February 2022. Since then it has served as an important military logistics hub for Russia’s troops in Ukraine’s south.
But its proximity to Ukraine, which has developed increasingly sophisticated drone technology since the start of the war, has left it vulnerable.
The peninsula has been in the throes of a fuel crisis since mid-May, when Ukraine intensified strikes on the “Novorossiya” highway, used for crucial deliveries to both Russia’s military and Crimea’s civilian population.
After weeks of shortages, gas sales to civilians were suspended and it is now allocated only for essential services “that ensure the functioning and security” of the peninsula, Sergey Aksyonov, the Russia-installed head of Crimea, said on Telegram on Sunday.
He added that four people were killed and 28 others injured by Ukrainian drone strikes on Crimea’s eastern Kerch area.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said an oil depot and military logistics facilities were targeted.
The gas crisis comes amid power outages, which authorities have attributed to “technological disruptions” without linking them to the drone strikes. Mikhail Razvozhaev, the Russia-appointed governor of the city of Sevastopol, warned residents Sunday that streetlights will have to be turned off and all outdoor events canceled until further notice.
Renowned for its stunning beaches and turquoise seas, Crimea has been a regular hot spot for tourists from mainland Russia, but the worsening crisis will likely derail the industry this year. Aksyonov, Crimea’s governor, said Monday that summer camps would stop admitting any more children.
On the Ukrainian side, Brovdi, the drone commander, apologized to his countrymen for the “constant anxiety” and logistical challenges they faced as a result of the drone attacks.
Urging them to stay away from military facilities and anything flammable, he said there was no other way to demilitarize Russian troops and “evict one million occupiers” from the peninsula.
“Crimea will topple Moscow,” he added. “A suitcase without a handle is a heavy burden.”
That claim may be a little bold, according to Michael Clarke, a visiting professor of war studies at King’s College London. Ukraine knows it will not be able to liberate Crimea in the foreseeable future and it’s not part of Kyiv’s immediate war aims, “but it remains an important strategic pressure point for Kyiv,” he said.
In Moscow, the situation is creating a public relations problem for the Kremlin, which is already facing growing internal dissatisfaction with Putin and war fatigue.
“Intensive work” was underway to “minimize the negative consequences of the Kyiv regime’s barbaric actions” and ensure fuel supply for the population, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday.
While Putin has not directly addressed the crisis, he said Tuesday that Ukraine was using drone strikes on civilian infrastructure to “rock” Russian society as he asked his officials to “minimize” their impacts.
But Russia’s powerful military bloggers have criticized what they said was lack of meaningful response from the Kremlin to what they called Ukraine’s efforts to turn Crimea into an “island.”
“The isolation of Crimea meets no resistance,” one influential blogger wrote. “Russia’s top officials are pretending that nothing is happening.”
It comes as the battlefield on the mainland remains largely static, without any major breakthroughs on either side, and U.S.-led peace efforts stalled during its war with Iran. At the Group of Seven summit last week, President Donald Trump signaled he would shift his focus back to the war in Ukraine.
Were Ukraine able to isolate Crimea and make it “unviable,” it would give Kyiv a major bargaining chip in any future negotiations after a ceasefire with Moscow, according to Clarke, from King’s College London.
“And if there is no ceasefire, the pressure on Putin would just keep building if this great symbol of Russian imperial power suffers increasing distress throughout the coming year,” he said.
