The authorities in Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula controlled by Russia, declared a state of emergency on Friday after weeks of intense air attacks by Ukraine, including a wave of drone strikes overnight that appears to have been one of the largest since the war began.
The Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday that its air defenses had intercepted 660 Ukrainian drones overnight. Crimea and about a dozen other regions were targeted, according to the ministry, which said nothing about damage or casualties. Later on Friday, the ministry said 46 additional Ukrainian drones had been destroyed that morning.
Ukraine’s recent attacks on Crimea, meant to isolate the strategic Black Sea peninsula, have rattled everyday life there to an extent unseen since Russia illegally annexed the region in 2014.
Gas stations have run out of fuel, creating long lines at the few stations still operating. Summer camps have been canceled and children have been evacuated. Rolling power outages have crippled the territory, disrupting water supplies that rely on electric pumps.
Many Russians who had planned to spend their summer vacations in Crimea, a favorite holiday destination, changed their plans. Others who had already arrived were leaving. On Friday, thousands of cars were lined up on the Crimean side of the bridge linking it to the Russian mainland, with none on the other side waiting to enter, officials said.
Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian-appointed leader of Crimea, announced the state of emergency in a video statement released on Friday, saying it was meant to “streamline financial, monetary, credit and contractual relations.” Mikhail Razvozhayev, the head of Sevastopol, which is Crimea’s largest city and a separate administrative region, issued a similar statement.
Legally, the state of emergency gives local officials additional powers, including the authority to coordinate civilian evacuations and to fast-track emergency spending by forgoing public tenders.
Over the past several months, Ukraine has carried out increasingly heavy air attacks on Crimea and parts of Russia, puncturing the peace that Russian civilians had largely enjoyed during the war. Last week, Ukraine carried out its largest drone strike on the Moscow region since the war began, which forced the suspension of flights at the capital’s four international airports, severely damaged a major oil refinery, injured at least 17 people and killed an 8-year-old girl.
