Crimea's big cities in total blackout after Ukrainian drone strikes

- Ukraine has been systematically striking Russian energy infrastructure in Crimea and on the Russian mainland for over a year, aiming to degrade the logistics supporting Russia's invasion. These strikes are part of a broader campaign that has already cut Crimea's water supply (from the destroyed Nova Kakhovka dam) and significantly reduced fuel storage and rail capacity. - Crimea has been under Russian occupation since 2014. Russia built a major military hub there for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine launched in February 2022. - "Total blackout" means the drone strikes knocked out substations and power lines that feed Crimea's largest cities, including Sevastopol (home port of Russia's Black Sea Fleet) and Simferopol. Emergency blackout schedules are now in effect. - Ukraine rarely claims responsibility publicly but has increasingly relied on domestically-produced long-range drones to hit targets deep behind Russian lines, compensating for limits on Western-supplied long-range missiles. - The strikes underscore Ukraine's strategy of making Crimea untenable as a Russian military staging ground, even without recapturing the peninsula by force.