Ukrainian attacks shake Russia and Crimea – hits on oil facilities and electricity infrastructure cause massive damage.
In the early hours of the morning, a series of explosions rocked southwest Russia and the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula. As the New York Times reports, fuel depots, refineries and energy facilities fell victim to a Ukrainian attack that Moscow said involved more than 100 drones. The full extent of the damage caused was initially unclear.
Russian authorities announced that the power grid in Sevastopol had been hit. This led to power outages in the area. Just a few days ago, Ukraine hit a Russian military airport in Crimea with precision missiles. There are pictures of it here.
Fires also broke out at various oil facilities in southwest Russia, including at the port of Novorossiysk, which houses a major oil terminal.
Ukraine has been trying to put pressure on the Russian economy for several months. This goal is primarily pursued through attacks on logistical hubs and energy facilities.
“Novorossiysk is a major oil export port, with about 1.5 million barrels of Russian oil flowing through it every day,” Damien Ernst, an energy expert and professor at the University of Liège, Belgium, told The New York Times.
If the attack caused significant damage to oil facilities there, it could have consequences for the Russian oil industry, which has been repeatedly targeted by Ukrainian drone attacks in recent months.
Schools in Sevastopol, a city of about half a million people on the Black Sea, were closed after the attack, the city’s Russian governor announced on Telegram. The repair work on the affected transformer station would take about a day and the resulting power outages would force the authorities to introduce rotating power cuts.
Crimea and its Black Sea ports have long been a key target for the Ukrainian military. Ukraine has three goals there: to reduce Russia’s capacity to use Crimea as a launching pad for missile and drone strikes; to disrupt supply routes that carry fuel and ammunition to the battlefield; and to weaken the Russian fleet in the region to reduce pressure on Ukrainian operations in the Black Sea.