Total Blackout in Kerch After Ukrainian Strikes

Total blackouts were reported in eastern Crimea’s Kerch on Wednesday morning following a wave of Ukrainian strikes.

Ivan Koshel, the Kremlin-appointed head of the Kerch administration, confirmed the situation, according to independent Russian outlet Astra.

“Unfortunately, as a result of the enemy drone attack, Kerch is completely without power. Life-support systems are operating on backup power sources. All city services are involved in emergency recovery operations,” Koshel was quoted as saying.

Kerch is a key entry point for traffic from mainland Russia to the occupied peninsula, notably via the Kerch Bridge constructed by Moscow following the peninsula’s 2014 annexation, which has come under repeated Ukrainian strikes.

Krymenergo, the occupied peninsula’s main energy operator, also reported power outages in “some settlements in the peninsula’s Northwestern and Eastern power districts,” Astra reported.

“Power supply restrictions are in effect in Crimea. Power outages will occur promptly, depending on the situation in power districts. Under the current circumstances, it is not possible to inform the public about power supply times,” the company was quoted as saying.

Russia’s defense ministry claimed to have shot down 93 Ukrainian drones overnight across the Belgorod, Bryansk, Kursk, and Rostov regions, along with the Moscow region, Krasnodar Krai, occupied Crimea, and the Azov and Black seas in its Wednesday morning update.

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On Wednesday morning, local monitoring channel Crimean Wind shared video footage of drones “flying over the village of Bagerovo in the direction of Kerch,” later reporting that explosions were heard in the area, with traffic on the Kerch Bridge subsequently blocked.

However, it’s unclear what was struck overnight between Tuesday and Wednesday.

Ukraine has not commented on the attack at the time of publication.

Blackouts hitting across occupied Crimea

The widened Ukrainian campaign taking on Crimea’s power grid kicked off in earnest in early July.

Crimea’s 2.3 million residents, along with visitors to the territory’s resort-dense southern coast, had already been grappling with near-catastrophic automobile fuel shortages following weeks of Ukrainian drone raids against Crimea’s fuel storage sites and the arrival of incoming ship and truck tanker fuel shipments from the Russian mainland.

Repeated follow-up strikes have focused on transmission nodes.

The Simferopol Combined Cycle Thermal Power Plant, a major natural-gas-fired facility known locally as the Tavriyska TPP (or Tavria TPP), was an early priority target in that campaign – with Ukrainian kamikaze aircraft scoring confirmed hits in three air raids from June 20 to 25.

Russian-installed officials, including Sevastopol’s mayor Mikhail Razvozhaev, have confirmed that outages are affecting Crimean cities.

On Tuesday, Razvozhaev announced that a “special regime” had been introduced at energy facilities but did not explain what the measure entails.

He urged residents to conserve battery power on their mobile phones, use electronic devices only when necessary for emergency communication, and minimize electricity consumption to avoid overloading the power grid.