Deadly strikes in Russia-annexed Crimea have raised the toll in a widening exchange of attacks between Moscow and Kyiv, with Kremlin-installed officials reporting four deaths on the peninsula a day after both sides hit cities across the border.
Sergei Aksyonov, the Russia-appointed head of Crimea, said Ukrainian forces struck a non-residential area of Simferopol, the peninsula’s main administrative centre, killing three people and wounding seven.
In a later update posted on Telegram, Mr Aksyonov said a separate Ukrainian drone attack hit a commuter train in eastern Crimea, leaving one person dead and three others injured.
Ukraine did not immediately comment.
In Sevastopol, the strategic Crimean port, the local Russia-installed governor said air defence units intercepted more than 20 Ukrainian drones.
He reported no casualties, but said falling debris from the drones damaged several buildings.
Russia seized and annexed Crimea in 2014 — years before its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 — after public protests in Kyiv led a Moscow-friendly Ukrainian president to flee the country. The peninsula remains a popular holiday destination for Russian tourists.
Authorities in the region have also introduced measures to address fuel shortages, as Ukrainian strikes increasingly target oil infrastructure, including facilities far inside Russia.
Stalled talks
US-brokered talks intended to move the sides towards ending the war, now in its fifth year, have stalled while Washington remains focused on its war with Iran.
On the battlefield, Russian shelling on yesterday killed at least three civilians in Kramatorsk — one of Ukraine’s “fortress cities” near the front line — while eight people were injured near the city of Dnipro, according to local and regional officials.
Today, Ukraine’s emergency service said firefighters were tackling a blaze in the Boryspil area outside Kyiv after a drone attack hit an industrial facility, injuring one person.
Across the border in Russia’s Bryansk region, the acting governor said a Ukrainian drone attack killed a crane operator.
Ukraine’s campaign against Russia’s oil industry has included a strike on an oil terminal in St Petersburg on Wednesday. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said such attacks allow Ukraine “to end this war on equal footing”.
Twenty-three people were killed in strikes on Ukrainian cities on Tuesday after Moscow said it would carry out “systematic” attacks in response to a drone strike on a dormitory in Russian-occupied territory. Ukraine denies attacking the dormitory.
