Ukraine says it hit a railway bridge to Crimea, seeking to isolate the
Russian-held peninsula
[June 24, 2026]
By ILLIA NOVIKOV
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine said Tuesday its forces struck a railway
bridge, a power plant and other key infrastructure targets in Crimea as
Kyiv’s military seeks to isolate the vital Russian-held peninsula in the
latest stage of the 4-year-old war.
The drone attacks added to the woes on the Black Sea peninsula, where
Russian authorities have had to suspend gasoline sales to civilians as
Ukraine has intensified its recent campaign to disrupt supply lines and
the electrical grid at the height of the summer tourist season.
The peninsula was seized by force and illegally annexed by Moscow in
2014. Ukraine's increasing use of long-range strikes has highlighted its
ability to inflict painful damage on Russia and put added pressure on
the Kremlin while Moscow’s advances recently have ground to a near halt,
Western analysts and officials say.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said last week that his
forces are “isolating Crimea with drones.”
“It looks like in the nearest time, Crimea will become an island. This
could lead to some very unexpected consequences for Russians,” Fedorov
said on a blogger's YouTube channel.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow had been warned that
Ukraine aimed to disrupt energy supplies and Russia’s tourism industry.
He didn’t say who gave the warning.
Ukrainian drones “coming in a huge stream” seek to “destabilize” Russian
society, Putin said.
Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told Putin on Tuesday
that officials were considering suspending diesel fuel exports to
protect the country's motorists, adding to ongoing bans on the export of
jet fuel and gasoline, according to the Tass news agency. Novak also
said scheduled maintenance at refineries had been postponed.
Ukraine also has hit targets near to the Kremlin in Moscow and in St.
Petersburg, Russia's second-largest city this month.
Parts of Crimea are without power
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said drones struck an oil storage depot at
the Kerch thermal power plant in eastern Crimea, an electrical
substation in the west, and a liquefied natural gas distribution station
in Simferopol, the peninsula’s second-biggest city.
In addition, Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces said their units,
working with what they said was the resistance movement in Crimea,
destroyed a rail bridge over the North Crimean Canal near the village of
Rozdolne.
The military described the span as a key logistics route used to supply
Russian forces in southern Ukraine and said drones began hitting the
structure late Sunday to Monday, collapsing part of it. A second strike
early Tuesday targeted railway repair equipment deployed at the bridge
and its remaining sections, it said on Telegram.
It was not possible to independently verify the Ukrainian claims, and
Russian officials made no immediate comment.
Parts of Crimea were without power Tuesday, the area’s energy supplier
said. But it attributed the outages to “technical malfunctions” in local
electrical grids and said it expected power to be restored within 24
hours.
The diamond-shaped peninsula is important because of its naval bases and
beaches, as well as its strategic location in the Black Sea. Russia has
spent centuries fighting for it.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin leads a cabinet meeting via
videoconference at the Kremlin in Moscow, Tuesday, June 23, 2026. (Gavriil
Grigorov/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Russian-appointed officials in Crimea have appeared reluctant to discuss
attacks on the peninsula, but new security measures suggest deepening
tension.
Its Ministry of Sport on Tuesday canceled all sporting events,
competitions, and training sessions for children through Sept. 1. It
described the measures as “aimed solely at ensuring the safety of our
children, athletes, and anyone who is involved with sport.”
On Monday, Gov. Sergei Aksyonov said that for security reasons, all
summer camps in the region had stopped accepting children and new
bookings until Sept. 1.
Successes against Russia boost Ukrainian morale
On the front line in eastern Ukraine, where Russia’s war of attrition
has made slow and costly advances since Moscow’s full-scale invasion in
February 2022, Ukraine has deployed cutting-edge drone technology to
keep the enemy pinned down.
Meanwhile, its medium-range drones have also disrupted Russia’s supply
lines to the front, and its long-range strikes have increasingly damaged
Russian oil facilities that provide vital revenue for the Kremlin’s war
effort.
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry said Monday its forces have hit more than
800,000 enemy targets with drones since the beginning of the year and
that 95% of drones used by the armed forces are domestically produced.
The successes have boosted Ukrainian confidence, and President Volodymyr
Zelenskyy says sustained foreign support is locked in to help stop
Russia.
Officials have shown renewed vigor in talking about the war.
Ukraine’s U.N. Ambassador Andrii Melnyk said Monday that Kyiv remained
ready for direct talks with Russia to achieve a “just and lasting peace”
based on the U.N. Charter, but warned that Ukraine’s willingness to
compromise was not open-ended.
Melnyk said at a U.N. Security Council meeting that a ceasefire along
the current front line already represented a major concession and urged
Russia to withdraw from occupied Ukrainian territory.
He also said recent Ukrainian strikes had altered the dynamics of the
war, adding: “This is just the beginning.”
Russia's top diplomat says Moscow will defend Belarus
Meanwhile, the Kremlin is ready to “ensure the security” of its neighbor
and ally Belarus, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday,
days after Zelenskyy demanded that Belarus remove relay equipment on its
territory that Kyiv said aided Russian drone attacks.
The relay stations are used for signal transmissions to Russian drones
attacking Ukraine, according to Zelenskyy.
Lavrov told the Russian news agency Interfax that Kyiv was trying to
drag Belarus into the conflict. Moscow, in fact, had used Belarus'
territory to launch its invasion of Ukraine.
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