Regionwide Blackout Hits Crimea After Ukrainian Strikes Kill 1

An overnight Ukrainian attack on Crimea knocked out power across the entire annexed peninsula, the regional energy provider said Monday morning, after Kremlin-installed authorities said a woman was killed during the strikes.

Krymenergo, the state-owned energy provider in Crimea, told the Interfax news agency that the regionwide power outage was caused by “external interference.”

Authorities in the port city of Sevastopol, where Russia’s Black Sea Fleet is based, directly attributed the blackout to an “enemy attack on energy infrastructure outside the borders of Sevastopol.”

Sevastopol Governor Razvozhayev later said repair crews had managed to “reroute” power through backup lines to a “majority of residential homes” in the city. He said all energy customers would eventually see power restored in phases.

Separately, the Kremlin-installed head of annexed Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, said a woman was killed and two others were wounded in an overnight attack on the city of Kerch.

By Monday afternoon, power was partially restored in southern and eastern Crimea, the regional government said. Critical infrastructure, such as hospitals and emergency services, still had electricity despite the blackout, it added.

A state of emergency remains active in Crimea following previous Ukrainian strikes against energy infrastructure in the region last month.

Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, has been squeezed for weeks by Ukrainian drone strikes targeting military trucks and fuel tankers that supply the region from the north, which have led to local gasoline shortages.

Meanwhile, in Russia, authorities in the western Belgorod region said Monday morning that a civilian was killed in a Ukrainian drone strike on the vehicle he was driving.

Further north, in the Leningrad region, local officials said Ukrainian drone attacks damaged the Baltic Sea ports of Vysotsk and Ust-Luga.