Ukraine steps up campaign to isolate Crimea and heap pressure on Putin

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said an oil depot and military logistics facilities were targeted.

The gas crisis comes amid power outages, which authorities have attributed to “technological disruptions” without linking them to the drone strikes. Mikhail Razvozhaev, the Russia-appointed governor of the city of Sevastopol, warned residents Sunday that streetlights will have to be turned off and all outdoor events canceled until further notice.

Renowned for its stunning beaches and turquoise seas, Crimea has been a regular hot spot for tourists from mainland Russia, but the worsening crisis will likely derail the industry this year. Aksyonov, Crimea’s governor, said Monday that summer camps would stop admitting any more children.

On the Ukrainian side, Brovdi, the drone commander, apologized to his countrymen for the “constant anxiety” and logistical challenges they faced as a result of the drone attacks.

Urging them to stay away from military facilities and anything flammable, he said there was no other way to demilitarize Russian troops and “evict one million occupiers” from the peninsula.

“Crimea will topple Moscow,” he added. “A suitcase without a handle is a heavy burden.”

That claim may be a little bold, according to Michael Clarke, a visiting professor of war studies at King’s College London. Ukraine knows it will not be able to liberate Crimea in the foreseeable future and it’s not part of Kyiv’s immediate war aims, “but it remains an important strategic pressure point for Kyiv,” he said.

In Moscow, the situation is creating a public relations problem for the Kremlin, which is already facing growing internal dissatisfaction with Putin and war fatigue.

“Intensive work” was underway to “minimize the negative consequences of the Kyiv regime’s barbaric actions” and ensure fuel supply for the population, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday.

While Putin has not directly addressed the crisis, he said Tuesday that Ukraine was using drone strikes on civilian infrastructure to “rock” Russian society as he asked his officials to “minimize” their impacts.

But Russia’s powerful military bloggers have criticized what they said was lack of meaningful response from the Kremlin to what they called Ukraine’s efforts to turn Crimea into an “island.”

“The isolation of Crimea meets no resistance,” one influential blogger wrote. “Russia’s top officials are pretending that nothing is happening.”

It comes as the battlefield on the mainland remains largely static, without any major breakthroughs on either side, and U.S.-led peace efforts stalled during its war with Iran. At the Group of Seven summit last week, President Donald Trump signaled he would shift his focus back to the war in Ukraine.

Were Ukraine able to isolate Crimea and make it “unviable,” it would give Kyiv a major bargaining chip in any future negotiations after a ceasefire with Moscow, according to Clarke, from King’s College London.

“And if there is no ceasefire, the pressure on Putin would just keep building if this great symbol of Russian imperial power suffers increasing distress throughout the coming year,” he said.