Drone strikes hit Crimea — large fires near Balaklava, Sevastopol plunged into darkness

Ukrainian drone strikes overnight hit multiple locations in Crimea, sparking large fires near Balaklava and leaving parts of Sevastopol without power, local monitoring groups and Russian-installed officials reported.

Monitoring channel Krimski veter said two separate large blazes were recorded south of Sevastopol in the Balaklava area. One fire broke out close to a road junction at the village of Pervomayske, where a bridge crosses a railway line, while another raged near Vasili beach. Satellite imagery also showed a third hotspot in the Inzhir area that monitoring teams said had been extinguished after an earlier incident.

A separate fire was reported at a Russian military border facility in the village of Risove in northern Crimea; the monitoring group said it had no independently verifiable evidence that the facility itself was struck and could not determine the cause of that blaze.

Sevastopol’s Russian-installed governor, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said anti-air defences intercepted drones during the night attack and that debris from downed drones fell in several parts of the city, causing fires and a loss of electricity. He added that emergency services were working to extinguish the outbreaks.

Ukrainian drone force and wider campaign

Commander of Ukrainian Unmanned Systems Forces Robert "Magyar" Brovdi recently said Ukraine could target up to seven times more Russian military sites in occupied Crimea if Western funding arrives as planned. Brovdi added that his units are currently operating at only 14 percent of the capacity they would need for full-scale operations on Crimea.

Ukrainian strikes in recent months have hit Russian railway bridges, fuel depots, energy infrastructure and air-defence systems, aiming to disrupt supply lines and create opportunities for further drone operations on the peninsula. Separately, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Ukraine has liberated 745 square kilometres of occupied territory this year.

Photo: Креирана илустрација