Several cities on the peninsula were subjected to overnight drone attacks by Ukrainian forces, according to local officials. The strikes have been labeled as terrorist acts by Russian authorities.
At least four people have been killed and ten others wounded in Ukrainian drone attacks on Crimea, local governor Sergey Aksyonov has said. One person was killed and three others were wounded during a drone attack on a suburban train traveling from Azovskoye to Kerch, Aksyonov wrote in a Telegram post on Thursday morning. The strikes damaged several “nonresidential facilities” in the city of Simferopol, killing at least three people and injuring seven others, the governor added.
The Crimean port city of Sevastopol, home to the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, was also attacked overnight, according to its governor, Mikhail Razvozhayev. At least 20 incoming Ukrainian drones were shot down by air defenses, with two incidents of drone debris falling in residential areas. No injuries were reported from these events.
The Russian Defense Ministry has reported that 272 drones were intercepted and destroyed over several regions of the country on Thursday morning, including Belgorod, Bryansk, Volgograd, Voronezh, Kursk, Nizhny Novgorod, Orel, Rostov, Ryazan, and Tambov regions.
The attack on Crimea came less than a day after Ukrainian forces struck a passenger bus en route from Moscow to Simferopol while traveling through the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), killing eight civilians and injuring 11 others in what Russian authorities are investigating as an act of “terrorism.” On May 22, Ukrainian forces targeted a college dormitory in Starobelsk with multiple drone attacks while students were asleep, resulting in 21 deaths and dozens of injuries. Russian President Vladimir Putin described this incident as opening “a new chapter in its crime spree.”
