Russians Feel the War’s Hardships as Ukraine Pummels Crimea

Strikes on fuel and power infrastructure have cut electricity in parts of Crimea, strained water supplies and pushed residents to the black market for gasoline

By Daria Matviichuk and Thomas Grove 

The Wall Street Journal

Updated June 28, 2026 7:19 pm ET

Original article contains links

Cars lined up this month at a gas station in Crimea. Associated Press

Quick Summary

 -- Ukrainian drone attacks on Crimea’s power and fuel facilities have caused widespread disruptions and hardships for residents.

 --The offensive led to a state of emergency, power outages, a gasoline black market, and thousands fleeing across the Kerch Bridge.

 -- Crimea’s tourism sector has been severely affected, with bookings falling by as much as half, and basic services have stopped functioning.

This summary was generated with AI and reviewed by an editor. 

For more than four years, Vladimir Putin has tried to shield Russians from the hardships of war. But in Crimea, residents and tourists drawn to its sandy beaches are now enduring the conflict’s costs firsthand.

Ukraine has made the Black Sea peninsula that Putin annexed in 2014 a new theater of the war with hundreds of Ukrainian drone attacks each day on Crimean power and fuel facilities, a campaign that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky describes as “long-range sanctions.” Crimea now has regular air-raid alerts, power outages and a gasoline black market with a going rate of as much as $25 a gallon.

Crimea’s Russia-backed authorities imposed a state of emergency last week to bring order as thousands of residents and tourists fled across the Kerch Bridge, which connects the Russian mainland to the peninsula. A blockade imposed by Ukrainian drones has effectively cut Crimea off from Russian supplies.

The offensive has upended life in Crimea and undercut its image as a showcase of Putin’s imperial ambitions in Ukraine after he poured money into the peninsula. Crimeans say basic services like kindergartens, trash collection and ATMs have stopped functioning.

In Sevastopol, once the base of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet before Ukrainian drones forced its rebasing outside Crimea to Novorossiysk, resident Maksim Tikhomirov, 46 years old, said there has been no electricity for days. The state of emergency has forced stores to close at 8 p.m., but most have shut their doors altogether, as refrigerated and frozen goods spoil with no power.

“In Sevastopol specifically, the situation is very difficult,” he said. “Most stores are not operating at all. It’s impossible to withdraw cash. Public transportation is running very poorly and in limited numbers.”

Hit hardest has been Crimea’s tourism sector. The peninsula attracted some seven million visitors last year, bringing in $60 million officially, though real tourist revenues are much higher because many hotels and apartment owners don’t declare the revenue.

Summer tourism bookings in Crimea have plunged. Alexey Pavlishak/Reuters

With gas stations closed, trains halted and ferries usually packed with tourists suspended, the Association of Russian Tour Operators said bookings in Crimea had fallen by as much as half in the first weeks of summer and could fall further. 

For tourists who make it to Crimea, they must turn to chat groups and online maps where people share information about a possible open gas station or where fuel can be bought on the black market.

Anna Ivanova, 32, a tourist from Moscow, arrived in Crimea after gas stations had already shut down. She found a black-market salesman who filled her car up for 500 rubles a liter, about $25 a gallon, about six times the average price.

“There’s no panic, but there are definitely fewer tourists than this time last year,” she said.

Crimea’s occupation began only days after 2014 Kyiv street protests forced out a pro-Russian president and brought a Western-leaning government to power. Men in unmarked military fatigues appeared on the peninsula, seizing bases and government offices. 

Then, Russian-backed authorities dissolved the Ukrainian government in Crimea and held a referendum in which voters overwhelmingly voted to join Russia. The vote was criticized internationally as neither free nor fair. Putin annexed the peninsula, which he has described as Russia’s spiritual homeland.

The strikes come months ahead of parliamentary elections, planned for September, forcing the Kremlin to maintain a strict sense of composure. While the vote will be little more than a rubber stamp for the country’s United Russia party to stay in power, Putin is intent on preventing political tensions from rising.

The Kremlin leader Sunday evening acknowledged the strikes on Crimea’s energy infrastructure and said that the central government would make up for any deficit through deliveries over land or by sea. He also said that the strikes were part of an information campaign to break Russia’s morale.

Power outages are frequent these days in Crimea. Alexey Pavlishak/Reuters

Likewise, in Sevatpol, Crimea’s largest city, authorities have denied rumors circulating in local chat groups that regional officials have left the country and taken their families to mainland Russia.

“Hold the line, and trust only official sources of information,” said Oleg Kryuchkov, an adviser to Crimea’s regional governor.

Konstantin Kosachyov, deputy speaker of Russia’s Federation Council, has warned Russian audiences against giving in to what he called psychological warfare.

“There are temporary difficulties, there’s no doubt, but life continues and elections will continue regardless of, let’s say, the weather,” he said in a state television interview.

Meanwhile, Crimeans are fending for themselves.

In Yalta, on the southeastern shore of Crimea, Viktoria Spivakova said she quit her job to stay home with her children because their kindergarten class was canceled. She can’t get to an emergency daycare because of the lack of fuel.

“Honestly, the constant anxiety can be exhausting,” said another Sevastopol resident, Boris Mikitchenko, 38. “But Sevastopol is holding on.”

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Appeared in the June 29, 2026, print edition as 'Russians Feel War’s Hardships in Crimea'.

Thomas Grove covers the confrontation between Russia and the West for The Wall Street Journal. He is based in Warsaw. Before that Thomas covered Russia for more than a decade and he has traveled to Ukraine regularly since Russia's invasion. [...]