Ukrainian forces claim to have struck and destroyed with drones a railway bridge connecting the Crimean peninsula to other Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia. “The railway bridge of the North Crimean Canal no longer exists,” the Ukrainian army wrote in a statement. In recent days, other bridges, radar stations, Russian air defense systems, power stations, fuel depots, and so on have also been hit.
Ukraine’s attacks on military and energy infrastructure in Crimea are becoming increasingly intense and effective, and are causing enormous difficulties for the Russian authorities, who have been working for years to integrate occupied Crimea into the Russian state economically, socially, and in terms of transport. Ukrainian operations are trying to undo this work: “It seems that very soon Crimea will become an island,” said Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov. The Russian-appointed governor of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, declared a state of economic emergency on Friday.
Crimea was occupied by Russia in 2014. Then, with the full-scale invasion of 2022, Russia occupied the Ukrainian territories north of Crimea, securing direct access to the peninsula. Since then, it has built bridges, highways, and infrastructure, and has done everything to ensure that territory was fully assimilated.
For Russia, Crimea has strategic and historical importance: strategic because of its geographical position in the Black Sea; and historical because it has always been considered a vital part, first of the Russian Empire and then of the Soviet Union. For decades, moreover, Crimea was the place where millions of Soviet citizens spent their holidays, and many people in Russia have never stopped thinking of the peninsula as their own territory.
In recent months, however, Ukraine has intensified drone attacks on Crimea, with the aim of isolating it. For this reason, the R-280 highway, which connects the peninsula to Russia via the occupied Ukrainian territories, was attacked first. The attacks then continued against the bridges connecting the peninsula to the rest of the continent, and against the ferries transporting goods from Russia.
Then the drones continued to hit Russian infrastructure in Crimea. The Ukrainians have focused especially on energy infrastructure such as refineries, fuel depots, and power plants. Crimea depends on energy imports from Russia, and the consequence of the Ukrainian attacks is a severe energy crisis: on Sunday, the pro-Russian authorities completely suspended the sale of fuel to private individuals because there is not enough left, and they said it will be sold only to “government agencies that ensure the functioning” of the territory.
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Some areas of the peninsula are experiencing frequent blackouts, because electricity is also lacking, and others are hit by now-daily drone attacks. As a result, the tourist season is ruined and the authorities are in a full state of emergency.
Ukraine at this moment does not really hope to reconquer Crimea: although in recent months the Ukrainian army has managed to slowly regain ground in the east of the country, Crimea is a distant goal and currently unreachable from a military point of view.
The attacks instead have two other objectives. The first is to increase the cost of the war for Russia: to ensure that the war damages not only Ukrainian territory but also Russian territory, and thus increase political pressure on the Russian authorities.
The second objective is to show the local population the powerlessness of the Russian authorities. This is particularly relevant in Crimea, where a significant part of the population accepted the Russian occupation, also thanks to the promise of Vladimir Putin’s regime of investments, integration, and economic development. Ukraine is trying to make that promise unattainable.
Ukraine’s attacks on military and energy infrastructure in Crimea are accompanied by those made more generally against Russian territory, which are putting Putin’s regime in difficulty. They are all a response to the daily drone and missile bombardments that Russia conducts on Ukrainian cities.
In recent days, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukrainian military operations against Russian targets, including the one in Crimea, are “carefully calculated” and have the goal of “creating the conditions to force Russia to choose peace.”
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