Large-scale power outages swept across Russian-occupied Crimea, parts of Kherson Oblast, and occupied Donetsk overnight following a new wave of Ukrainian drone strikes targeting military and energy infrastructure. Explosions were reported in Sevastopol and Kerch, while local Telegram channels said an electrical substation near the village of Nekrasivka in Crimea's Bakhchysarai district was likely damaged, cutting power to nearby areas. A fire also broke out in occupied Melitopol after the overnight attacks, while electricity disappeared in occupied Donetsk around midnight.
Volodymyr Saldo, the Russian-installed governor of the occupied part of Kherson Oblast, confirmed the scale of the disruption, saying that "all districts of Kherson Oblast have been left fully or partially without electricity." The widespread blackout comes only days after another major outage on June 26, which occupation authorities attributed to a failure in the neighboring Zaporizhzhia energy system. Earlier, the Russian-controlled utility Krymenergo had already introduced planned rolling blackouts and electricity restrictions across Crimea as pressure on the peninsula's power grid intensified.
The overnight strikes formed part of Ukraine's broader campaign against Russia's military logistics and energy infrastructure. President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukrainian forces had struck the Slavyansk oil refinery in Russia's Krasnodar Krai, about 300 kilometers from the front line, as well as another refinery in Yaroslavl Oblast, roughly 700 kilometers from Ukraine's border.
