A middle-aged couple from Moscow and their teenage son began their summer vacation to the Black Sea beaches of Crimea this month by filling five-gallon gasoline canisters and stocking up on food — as if headed to a war zone. Because in many ways they were.
Idealized as a land of Soviet-era youth camps and resorts, Crimea — the Ukrainian peninsula that Russia invaded and annexed illegally in 2014 — has become President Vladimir Putin’s prized possession, a symbol of his vision of Russia restored to superpower heights and a key logistics hub for his military operations across southeast Ukraine.
Well into the fifth year of the war, however, that vision seems increasingly tenuous.
In recent weeks, Ukraine has put a stranglehold on Crimea, using an increasingly capable fleet of mid- and long-range drones to destroy roads and other infrastructure used by Russia to funnel troops and weapons to the front, Ukrainian security officials said.
Drones have also pummeled railroad bridges, checkpoints, pontoon crossings and oil refineries, causing fuel shortages on the peninsula. The Russian-installed authorities in Crimea halted fuel distribution over the weekend, even for those holding rationing coupons — part of a cascading fuel crisis affecting much of southern and western Russia.
As a result, the number of Russian vacationers, who have flocked to Crimea since its annexation, has ebbed, erasing crucial summer-holiday economic activity that the peninsula relies on.
And in recent days, Ukraine’s effort to choke off the territory from Russia has intensified, part of an effort to make the war felt by regular Russians that has also included large drone attacks on Moscow.
In Sevastopol, the largest city in Crimea with roughly half a million residents, fuel tanks were empty Monday and Tuesday and streetlights went dark to conserve energy, according to Gov. Mikhail Razvozhaev.
Water shortages are also being reported across the peninsula. Residents have been urged to switch off air conditioners despite temperatures touching 80 degrees, and train services have been cut back for at least several days.
Ukrainian drones also hit three of the five vehicle ferries at the Kerch crossing between Crimea and Russia’s Taman Peninsula, shutting down service and leaving some 700 vehicles stranded on the Kerch side overnight Saturday into Sunday.
What was the Soviet Union’s most iconic children’s camp, Artek in southern Crimea, which Putin’s government has used as a symbol of state prestige, was forced to cancel its summer sessions and evacuate children.
“I’d read about burning fuel tankers and trucks and drones, and imagined we’d be driving through something like a war zone,” said a Russian woman who, along with her husband and son, traveled to Crimea in early June — the family that brought its own fuel canisters. She spoke with The Washington Post on the condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisal. “There were no drones, but there were tankers — including some that had been hit. We saw them. At the gas stations, locals were queuing for eight hours or more to get fuel vouchers.”
Without consistent, reliable access to Crimea, Russian forces could be hindered along the stretches of front that have seen the most activity in recent months, where Ukraine has mounted some of its most intensive counterattacks.
“In the near future, Crimea will turn into an island. And this could have some very unexpected consequences for the Russians,” Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said in a recent YouTube interview.
The Ukrainian military announced what it called a “logistics lockdown” of Crimea at the end of May, saying it would “systematically destroy Russian logistics, warehouses, equipment, command posts and supply routes at operational depth.”
After the annexation, Crimea’s geography, with no land connection to Russia, posed a challenge for the Kremlin, one that culminated in construction of a roughly $4 billion bridge over the Kerch Strait. Putin inaugurated it in 2018, by driving a truck across the 10-mile span.
One stated goal of Russia’s full-scale invasion was securing an overland route from Russia to Crimea through occupied eastern Ukraine. The R-280 highway became that “land bridge” running through the captured Ukrainian cities of Melitopol and Mariupol.
Breakthroughs in midrange drones — Ukrainian-built and operating via Starlink, and U.S.-made artificial intelligence-powered Hornets — have tilted the drone war in Kyiv’s favor, enabling strikes across the land corridor to Crimea, including targeting of fuel tankers on the road.
Russia calls the area “Novorossiya” — New Russia, a euphemism the Kremlin uses for occupied territories — while Ukrainian forces have nicknamed it “the highway of death.”
Since late May, Ukraine has also hit oil terminals and refineries, along with three crossing points connecting Russian-occupied territory in mainland Ukraine to the peninsula — Armyansk, Henichesk and Chonhar — with the latter being hit at least three times in June, according to the Ukrainian military.
A drone strike hit a railway bridge on the Kerch-Dzhankoi line, which Russian forces use to move equipment and fuel to the southern front, sparking a fire and threatening to paralyze freight and passenger traffic.
Tens of thousands of Ukrainian drones are blanketing the middle ground of up to 200 miles beyond the frontline in Russian-occupied Ukraine.
Unverified videos posted to social media show what appear to be destroyed vehicles from Russian convoys smoldering on the roadside.
“There are practically no safe roads left for the occupier in the south and east of our state,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a nightly address earlier this month.
“This is further proof that there will be no calm times for the occupier on our land,” Zelensky said. “This is also reflected in shortages — above all, fuel shortages in Crimea and in our other regions under occupation.”
The Kerch Bridge was badly damaged in a 2022 Ukrainian car bombing that set fuel tanks on fire — and fuel deliveries over the bridge have been banned ever since.
That route is still the main way for Russian tourists to reach Crimea’s beaches — and they have come each summer in millions, mostly by car, despite the war raging on a few hundred miles to the north.
Russian tourist associations report a 50 percent drop in bookings compared with May, as travelers are put off by the chaos.
“There is no food shortage, the only things missing are buckwheat and sugar. We traveled around Crimea, the beaches were completely empty,” said the woman who traveled there with her family. “We didn’t see any fuel oil in the water, though locals said there are sometimes spots on the rocks.”
Addressing hundreds of Russia’s newly commissioned officers Tuesday, Putin said the West — by way of NATO — is preparing for war against Russia and “increasing their offensive military budgets,” as President Donald Trump has urged. Nearly 40 percent of Russia’s budget is spent on the military, arms and security.
In a separate government meeting, Putin addressed the drone attacks on Crimea and fuel shortages. Ukraine’s campaign “does not change and cannot change the events taking place at the front … where the Russian forces are liberating one settlement after another,” he said, giving no indication of an end to the fighting.
The rest of the summer season in Crimea is not canceled, but remains tenuous. Staunchly pro-war military bloggers called on the authorities in Crimea to issue statements urging Russians not to risk a trip.
“I’m just curious: has there been any official announcement, recommendation, or appeal to fellow citizens not to drag themselves off to Crimea this summer? Or are we in for an exciting quest to evacuate 2 million (on average) vacationers and beach-dwellers?” Komsomolskaya Pravda reporter Dmitry Steshin wrote on his blog. “It would be better to do it sooner — before the season kicks off — given just how reckless and oblivious our fellow citizens can be.”
Alexander Sergeyev, a pro-Russian blogger who has lived in Crimea since the 2014 annexation, wrote: “Traveling to Crimea right now is DANGEROUS! We can see this from the strikes on trains, buses, and cars that have resulted in fatalities.”
Serhiy Morgunov contributed to this report.
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