Power cuts hit Russian-held Kherson and Crimea after drone attacks
Blackouts spread across Russian-held Kherson and Sevastopol after drone strikes, exposing Crimea’s grid, rail links and summer travel to mounting strain.
Power went out early Friday across the Russian-held part of Ukraine’s Kherson region bordering Crimea, while Sevastopol and other parts of Russian-annexed Crimea faced fresh outages after drone attacks pushed already strained energy and fuel systems closer to disruption. Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-installed governor of occupied Kherson, gave no cause for the blackout. In Sevastopol, Crimea’s biggest city and main port, local authorities limited supply to avoid overloading the grid.
Russian-held Crimea has suspended tourist activities and children’s summer camps until September 1 because of a fuel crisis linked to attacks on supply routes, and the number of trains to the peninsula will be gradually reduced. Sergei Aksyonov, Crimea’s Russia-installed governor, put the death toll at one in a drone attack near the crossing into Russian-held Kherson on Thursday.
Kherson and Crimea sit on the hinge between occupied southern Ukraine and the peninsula Russia annexed in 2014. The corridor carries military logistics, rail movement and civilian summer travel to Sevastopol, the peninsula’s main naval hub.
Energy infrastructure in Kherson had been hit before, causing blackouts in multiple communities, and Ukrainian strikes on Crimea have already forced local authorities into reactive measures on fuel, rail service and tourism. Ukrainian forces also struck a railway bridge to Crimea and other infrastructure targets.
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