Ukrainian drone strikes damaged a historic war museum in Sevastopol, located in Russian-controlled Crimea, according to local officials who announced the attack on Wednesday. The incident has prompted authorities to scale back overnight train operations due to escalating aerial assaults.
The targeted museum honors the 1853-1856 Crimea War, a conflict between the Russian Empire and a coalition that included the Ottoman Empire, which resulted in Russia’s defeat.
Mikhail Razvozhayev, Sevastopol’s Russian-installed governor, reported via Telegram that the museum’s roof sustained damage from the drone attack. He did not elaborate on the extent of the destruction or report any injuries.
“The enemy will pay for this sacrilege!” Razvozhayev declared in his Wednesday morning social media post.
In other parts of Crimea, officials have reduced train operations during nighttime hours, according to Sergei Aksyonov, the peninsula’s Russian-installed governor, who made the announcement on Telegram. This decision follows a recent drone strike that wounded a train operator and fatally injured his colleague.
The Black Sea peninsula, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014, is experiencing fuel supply problems due to recent Ukrainian drone operations, coinciding with the start of vacation season.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy recently suggested direct negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which Putin declined. Following the railway incident, the Kremlin accused Ukraine of sabotaging efforts toward a peaceful settlement of the conflict.
Meanwhile, the city of Novokuibyshevsk in Russia’s Samara region was defending against drone attacks, according to the regional governor. The city serves as a significant petroleum center along the Volga river and houses multiple refineries run by state-owned oil company Rosneft.
Officials advised the city’s one million residents to take cover as public transit was halted during air raid warnings, local news outlets reported.
Ukraine’s persistent strikes on Russian energy facilities have compelled Moscow to reduce oil production, despite being the world’s third-largest producer.
In Russia’s southern Rostov region, which borders Ukraine, debris from a drone caused a fire in a fuel storage tank at a civilian location, the regional governor reported on Telegram.
The mayor of Moscow also announced via Telegram that the capital was defending against drone attacks.
In unusual developments, distant Russian oil-producing areas including Khanty-Mansiysk, Perm and Tyumen, along with industrial regions Chelyabinsk and Sverdlovsk in the Ural mountains thousands of kilometers from Ukraine, issued air raid warnings, based on local officials’ social media announcements.
Reuters was unable to independently confirm these reports.
