Summer camps are canceling their sessions. Gas is nowhere to be found. And now the electricity is flickering out.
Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, is reeling from an air campaign that Kyiv has escalated more than four years into a war that remains largely stalemated on the front lines.
The situation has added a new pressure point for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, as advances in Ukrainian drone and missile production enable Kyiv to launch bigger attacks that can more easily overwhelm Russian air defenses farther away from the front.
Ukrainian officials have described the Crimea campaign as an important strategic development that could help end the war, and gloated about their success in attacking oil infrastructure, military targets and vital supply routes into the peninsula.
“We are closing the beach season in Crimea,” Ukraine’s defense minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, said in a post Monday on Facebook. Ukrainian forces struck an oil depot, gas compressor stations, air defense systems and radar systems across the peninsula in recent days, he added.
“The forecast for tourists is unfavorable,” added Mr. Fedorov, who previously said the goal was to turn Crimea into an “island.”
The attacks in Crimea come days after Kyiv undertook its largest drone assault on Moscow since the start of the war, with part of the Russian capital’s main oil refinery going up in flames. Together, the onslaughts have underscored how Mr. Putin’s ability to isolate Russian society from the impacts of the war is sharply eroding.
The Russian leader has not commented publicly on the attacks, a conspicuous silence for many Russians, who are asking how their government will respond. Earlier this month, Mr. Putin said Russia must improve its air defenses to intercept such Ukrainian attacks, which continued Monday with an explosion at an electronics equipment factory in Voronezh, in southwestern Russia.
For weeks, Russians have faced lines or rationing at gas stations, as Ukraine steps up attacks on oil and fuel processing facilities across Russia, in what President Volodymyr Zelensky has said is an effort to get Mr. Putin to agree to a settlement.
Dmitry Kiselyov, a Russian state television commentator, characterized the attacks on Crimea on his show Sunday as compensation for Ukraine’s inability to make progress on the battlefield, though Russia has also been struggling to move its troops forward in recent weeks.
“The goal is to disrupt the tourist season and complicate life for Russia,” Mr. Kiselyov said. “The goal is to exert pressure on the country’s political leadership, in order to sign a peace agreement on Kyiv’s terms.”
Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, said on Monday that Russia was trying to mitigate the consequences of what he called Kyiv’s “barbaric actions,” noting that work was underway to ensure fuel supplies.
The Kremlin-backed head of Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, announced in a statement on Sunday that fuel sales outside the main city, Sevastopol, which functions as its own region, would be suspended. He said fuel would be supplied exclusively to services essential for Crimea’s operations and security, and asked residents to remain calm and trust only official government sources.
In Sevastopol, the fuel restrictions were so far in place only for Monday and Tuesday.
Electricity outages added to the woes that had already arisen with Kyiv’s effort to cut off the peninsula. The outages followed reports of explosions at a thermal power plant in Crimea.
An aide to Mr. Aksyonov, Oleg Kryuchkov, asked residents in a post on Telegram on Sunday to turn off air-conditioners and other nonessential electrical appliances while the power grid failure was being resolved. Temperatures in the region are forecast to be in the 80s this week.
Krymenergo, the primary power supplier on the peninsula, said in a statement on Sunday that rolling blackouts were being implemented because of “accidents” on the electric grid. In Sevastopol, the authorities stopped turning on streetlights.
Ukraine carried out strikes earlier this month on the two bridges that connect Crimea over an isthmus with the Russian-occupied part of the Kherson region in southern Ukraine. Russia opened a third bridge in 2018 connecting its southern Krasnodar Krai region with Crimea. That bridge remains operational but periodically suspends traffic.
With its sunny shores and cliffs, Crimea for decades has been a popular vacation spot and summer camp destination. After annexing the peninsula in 2014, Russia moved to revive much of the Soviet-era summer camp culture and infrastructure. The region has about two million inhabitants.
Mr. Askyonov issued an order on Monday that prohibits camps, vacation facilities and festivals from accepting children until September. He said the measures were necessary to ensure public safety.
Robert Brovdi, the commander of Ukraine’s unmanned systems forces, said in a post on Telegram that more attacks were to come.
“Crimea will bring Moscow down,” he wrote. “It is the psychological breaking point — the dictator’s hidden Achilles’ heel lies right under our noses.”
Maria Varenikova, Nataliia Novosolova and Nataliya Vasilyeva contributed reporting.
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