Ukrainian drones struck the Dzhankoi checkpoint, a railway bridge, a Russian pontoon crossing, and trucks at Chonhar overnight on 13 June, hitting four targets along the only land corridor between Russian-occupied Crimea and the southern front. Traffic toward the Dzhankoi checkpoint was halted, Russia's installed head of occupied Kherson Oblast Vladimir Saldo said on Telegram, claiming Russian air defenses shot down 25 Ukrainian drones overnight.
The strike marks a stated change in Ukrainian operational concept. The 1st Separate Assault Regiment named after Dmytro Kotsiubailo, which led the operation jointly with the 475th Separate Assault Regiment "CODE 9.2," announced it is moving from one-off attacks on the bridges themselves to sustained patrol of the entire logistics route. "We are transitioning to patrolling enemy logistics from temporarily occupied Crimea and blocking attempts to restore crossings," the regiment said in a statement posted to Facebook. "Pontoon throughput is low. Trucks accumulate in queues, becoming ready targets for us." Russian fuel and ammunition supplying Russia's southern front pass through this corridor.
The Dzhankoi checkpoint controls the main road between northern Crimea and the Kherson Oblast mainland and serves as the busiest highway and rail junction in occupied Crimea. Saldo also said a bridge between Henichesk and the Arabat Spit, an alternative crossing point Ukraine first struck on 10 June, was attacked again overnight. Ukrainian forces did not confirm Saldo's air defense claim.
The Chonhar bridge — the main highway link between Crimea and occupied Kherson Oblast — was first hit on 7 June by the joint Falanga multidomain operations center of the two regiments, using Fire Point company drones and long-range "Behemoth" UAVs. Traffic was rerouted, then halted again after a second strike on 9 June. Four vehicular bridges at Crimea's northwestern entrance near Armiansk were struck on 11 June, Euromaidan Press reported. The overnight strike on the Dzhankoi checkpoint extends the pattern — and signals the campaign has moved from the bridges to the trucks themselves.
The corridor Ukraine is now patrolling carries the supplies that sustain Russian operations across Ukraine's south. Russian fuel for the Huliaipole direction is shipped by ferry to Crimea and then trucked across the peninsula to the front, regiment commander Dmytro Filatov, call sign Perun, told Ukrainska Pravda earlier this week. Russian cargo, he said, does not move across the Kerch Bridge — its railway link has not been restored since the October 2022 explosion. Cyber intelligence inside Russian military networks now allows Ukrainian planners to target specific units waiting for fuel, Filatov added. The 37th Motor Rifle Brigade was the target of the 7 June Chonhar strike, he said. Trucks ordered for that brigade had still not arrived at the time of his interview.
The interdiction campaign confronts Russia with a layered constraint. Pontoons replace damaged bridges, but they throttle throughput and concentrate trucks in queues — the conditions the 1st Assault Regiment now describes as "ready targets." Rerouting through Armiansk and Perekop runs into the bridges hit on 11 June. Ferrying fuel from Krasnodar Krai bypasses the corridor entirely but cannot scale to replace road transport on the timeframes Russian units in southern Ukraine need.
Filatov said on 10 June that the Chonhar bridge had sustained critical damage and that the occupation forces were searching for new logistics routes for ammunition and fuel.
The announcement is what makes this strike news rather than another item in a logistics campaign. Until now, the Crimea land corridor functioned — slowly, under pressure, but it functioned. As of overnight on 13 June, the regiment that led the bridge strikes is declaring the corridor a sustained engagement zone. Not a target struck once. A route to be patrolled.
"We bleed the enemy to advance forward," the unit said. "This is not the end.
Ukraine's Defense Forces set major fuel and petrochemical plants deep inside Russia on fire and hit military targets along the front overnight on 12 June, according to Ukraine's General Staff. Fires broke out at refineries in Tatarstan and a rubber plant in Samara Oblast, while monitoring channels reported strikes in occupied Crimea. The raid forced one Russian city to cancel its Russia Day celebrations.
Units of Ukraine's Defense Forces struck the TANECO and TAIF-NK oil refineries in Nizhnekamsk, Republic of Tatarstan, Russia. The General Staff confirmed hits and fires at both plants. TANECO ranks among Russia's largest refineries, with a design capacity of over 16 million tons of oil per year. It produces diesel, aviation fuel, and other petroleum products. The plant lies more than 1,100 km from Ukraine's border.
Drones set fire to Nizhnekamskneftekhim, one of Russia's largest petrochemical plants, in Tatarstan in the early hours of 12 June.
— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) June 12, 2026
The strike reportedly ignited the AVT-8 unit, where crude oil gets its primary processing and is split into gasoline, diesel, and other fractions.… pic.twitter.com/BQFXXp4NyJ
Russian news Telegram channel Astra found at least three separate fires at TANECO in its OSINT analysis of eyewitness footage. Astra's source said the ELOU AVT-9 primary oil processing unit and the ELOU AVT-8 column were burning. The channel called TANECO one of Russia's most efficient refineries, with a refining depth of 99.6%. Monitoring Telegram channel Supernova+ published footage of two large fires with thick black smoke at the plant. Preliminary data pointed to damage at two primary processing units and a tank farm.
TAIF-NK, the second refinery hit, processes heavy high-sulfur crude and gas condensate at a declared refining depth above 95%, the General Staff noted. Its output runs from mass-market fuel to feedstock for petrochemicals and military needs.
Tatarstan declared a drone danger regime at 3 a.m., and the airports of Kazan and Nizhnekamsk restricted flights. Residents of Nizhnekamsk then reported powerful explosions across the city. Nizhnekamsk Mayor Radmir Belyaev stated the city canceled all festivities for Russia Day, the state holiday marked on 12 June.
Monitoring Telegram channels Exilenova+ and Supernova+ tracked the night's fires. Monitoring channels also reported a hit on Nizhnekamskneftekhim (NKNH), one of Europe's largest petrochemical complexes, located in the same city. The SIBUR-owned plant processes feedstock from TANECO and TAIF-NK into synthetic rubbers, plastics, and ethylene, Astra said.
Ukrainian forces also hit the Tolyattikauchuk plant in Tolyatti, Samara Oblast, Russia. The General Staff confirmed the strike and a fire at the site. The plant makes synthetic rubbers used, among other things, in producing solid rocket fuel for tactical and ballistic missiles, plus monomers, fractions, and high-octane gasoline additives.
Multiple fires are burning across the industrial zone of Russia's Tolyattikauchuk chemical plant after a massed Ukrainian Defense Forces drone attack on Tolyatti.
— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) June 12, 2026
The petrochemical plant in Samara Oblast produces synthetic rubber and tire components. Explosions rattled windows… pic.twitter.com/2Po2sqkq7v
Astra reported that Tolyattikauchuk, part of the Tatneft group, is listed in a closed registry of defense enterprises kept by Russia's Industry and Trade Ministry. Its rubbers go into tires for military vehicles and components for the aviation industry, the channel said.
Tolyatti Mayor Ilya Sukhikh stated that one industrial facility took damage from what he called a drone fall during a massive Ukrainian drone attack. Samara Oblast Governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev said nobody was hurt in the attack on the region.
Located hundreds of miles from the front, the R-280 Novorrosiya highway was, until a few months ago, not only a quiet route between southern Russia and Crimea. It was arguably the Kremlin’s biggest strategic achievement in four years of war in Ukraine. This land corridor along the Sea of Azov freed Russian logistics from relying on its massive Kerch Strait bridge to supply the peninsula, annexed by Moscow in 2014, and the forces deployed in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. However, new Ukrainian weapons have made all routes to Crimea extremely perilous, a situation comparable to the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, giving Kyiv new leverage to pressure Moscow. Crimea, the jewel of Putinism and a pilgrimage destination for Russian tourists, is no longer safe and is running out of fuel.
© Alexey Pavlishak (REUTERS)
Key developments on June 11:
Russia's gasoline crisis has spread to 25 of its own regions and six occupied Ukrainian ones, the Russian-language Moscow Times reported on 10 June. Six days earlier, the count stood at 15. Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries hit a wartime monthly record in May 2026, dropping Russian refining loading well below the start of the year.
The Russian Telegram channel 7×7 counted at least 25 Russian regions facing gasoline shortages and supply disruptions as of 10 June. Less than a week earlier, on 4 June, the number stood at 15. Restrictions also apply across six Russian-occupied Ukrainian regions: Crimea, Sevastopol, and the Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts.
Bloomberg counted 38 Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries from January through May 2026. May alone saw 16 — the highest monthly figure of the war. According to OilX, Russian refinery loading has dropped 14% since the start of the year and stays roughly 20% below pre-war levels.
Regional officials have responded unevenly. The acting governor of Belgorod Oblast, Alexander Shuvaev, acknowledged the shortage. Krasnodar Krai governor Veniamin Kondratyev called the situation "artificial hype." Residents publicly mocked the claim under his Telegram post, which was republished on a local channel. Gas stations in Krasnodar Krai have begun closing due to a shortage.
Fuel prices have spiked in occupied Crimea. On 10 June, AI-92 cost about $1.14 per liter, against $0.96 in Moscow. AI-95 traded near $1.25, up from $1.04 in the Russian capital. Resellers were offering fuel at $1.81-$2.08 per liter — about 50% above official Crimean prices.
On 8 June, Russia's Energy Ministry announced the creation of a task force to manage the fuel crisis, citing "growing enemy air attacks."
Sevastopol's Russian-installed governor said on 10 June that planned distribution of rationed petrol had been delayed, Reuters wrote on 11 June. Mikhail Razvozhayev claimed oil tanker trucks could not bring fuel into the city, following recent Ukrainian strikes on supply routes. Crimea, occupied by Russia in 2014, introduced fuel rationing last month due to shortages on the peninsula.
"Unfortunately, oil tanker trucks were unable to come to the city tonight," Razvozhayev wrote on Telegram.
He said priority for refueling on 11 June would go to public transport, utilities, emergency vehicles, and government vehicles.
"I am addressing everyone: there is no point in lining up at... the gas stations tomorrow," he added late on 10 June.
Existing rationing coupons would be canceled and new ones issued today.
Razvozhayev later claimed over two dozen Ukrainian drones were downed in the early hours of Thursday in a fresh attack on Sevastopol. The city is Crimea's second-largest and home to Russia's Black Sea Fleet.
On the same day, a major drone attack hit Russia's Volga region of Samara, more than 900 km from the front line, forcing state-owned oil giant Rosneft to halt processing at its Kuibyshevsky refinery.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday evening that Ukraine’s recently launched mid-range strike campaign against Russian logistics, including large-scale strikes on supply and fuel trucks, had proved its worth.
"In recent months, we are especially grateful for the mid-strikes: Russian military logistics throughout the entire depth of the temporarily occupied territory are now within reach of Ukrainian drones," he said. "Our impact reaches Russia’s border regions as well. The enemy feels it, and we will continue to expand it."
Ukrainian drones struck four vehicular bridges at Crimea's northwestern entrance overnight on 11 June 2026, quisling official Vladimir Saldo claimed. The strikes are part of Ukraine's most recent mid-range strike push—now at its fourth day—reaching every road corridor between Crimea and mainland Ukraine. The same night, drone attacks also rolled across Sevastopol, Bakhchysarai, Saky, and other Crimean sites.
Saldo, the Russian-installed head of occupied Kherson Oblast, named the four targets on his Telegram. They include the automobile bridge in the Perekop-Armiansk area and a bridge near Stavky, Kherson Oblast. Two more bridges near Myrne and Preobrazhenka span the North Crimean Canal. Saldo stated all four spans sustained damage.
Ukraine struck the Chonhar bridge on 7 and 9 June, closing Russia's main road link to occupied Crimea, yet the Russians reportedly installed a pontoon bridge next to the severely damaged crossing. On 10 June, Ukrainian drones hit the bridge from Henichesk to Arabat Spit. With both routes fully or partially shut, Russia had rerouted traffic through Armiansk and Perekop — the very corridor struck overnight. DeepState analysts noted that Ukrainian strikes on the bridges are an important part of the blockade of occupied southern Ukraine.
Russia's occupation governor, Mikhail Razvozhayev, claimed 32 drones were shot down over Sevastopol between 22:00 and midnight. He claimed the drones fell near Sevastopol Bay, Cape Fiolent, and Balaklava. The city declared two air alerts during the night and the morning.
Monitoring Telegram channel Krymsky Veter reported machine-gun fire in Pishchane at 21:40 and in Andriivka shortly after, citing subscribers.
"At 21:40 a machine gun started firing in Pishchane, at 21:48 a machine gun started in Andriivka, after which an anti-aircraft gun fired a couple of bursts," the channel wrote.
Detonations followed near Cape Fiolent, in Sevastopol, and later in Bakhchysarai. By morning, Krymsky Veter reported explosions and shooting in Saky.
Russia's Defense Ministry claimed the destruction of 330 drones over Russia and the occupied territories in the same overnight period.
The First Assault Brigade shared the footage of the strikes:
Videos emerged of some of the Ukrainian strikes on bridges linking occupied Crimea to occupied Kherson Oblast
— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) June 11, 2026
Ukraine's 1st Assault Brigade, 475th Assault Regiment, and SBU's Alfa reportedly took part.
More on the strikes: https://t.co/xkKf15akux https://t.co/7FhAOJbWl0 pic.twitter.com/WFXUcKjfWm
Today, 10 June 2026, marks the 1,568th day of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine — exactly the same number of days that World War I lasted, ArmyInform observes. Russia has not achieved its strategic objectives to eliminate Ukraine, with the Kremlin's original "Kyiv in three days" planning now four years and three months past.
Russian losses across that period, as documented by Ukraine's General Staff, total more than 1.3 million Russian military personnel killed and wounded, tens of thousands of tanks, armored vehicles, and artillery pieces destroyed, and 33 Russian ships and boats sunk or destroyed.
The Black Sea Fleet is now operating only in a land-support capacity after Ukrainian strikes forced its retreat from operating bases in temporarily occupied Crimea.
The total cost of destroyed Russian equipment over four years is estimated at approximately $153 billion. May 2026 alone saw more than 31,500 Russian troops killed and seriously wounded, according to Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov. These figures are Ukrainian estimates. Russian casualty data is not publicly released.
Russia's stated strategic objectives at the start of the February 2022 full-scale invasion, including the capture of Kyiv, the change of Ukrainian government, the demilitarization and "denazification" of Ukraine, and the establishment of a Russian-aligned regime in the Ukrainian capital, have not been reached.
Russian forces retreated from the northern Kyiv and Chernihiv axes in spring 2022, and although Russia has incrementally occupied additional territory in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson Oblasts since then, the pace of advance has been limited.
On the Ukrainian operational side, the past 12 months have seen a significant expansion of Ukraine's ability to strike targets across occupied territory and Russian rear areas.
The Ukrainian Defense Forces have established fire control over key logistics nodes in temporarily occupied Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts and in Crimea, including bringing Donetsk Airport within range of regular strikes and striking the Chonhar Bridge.
In Crimea specifically, where Russia has concentrated air defense systems, 12 Russian Pantsir-S1 systems have been destroyed since the start of 2026.
These operations are conducted within Ukraine's $113 million "Logistics Lockdown" program announced in May, which provides for systematic strikes on Russian warehouses, equipment, command posts, and supply routes deep behind the front line. A separate Ukrainian Deep Strike track targets critical infrastructure inside Russia itself, with Ukrainian deep strikes reaching up to 1,800 kilometers into Russian territory and recent operations hitting Russian oil-logistics nodes from Volgograd to Novorossiysk.
Key developments on June 9:
Russia has begun moving gasoline to its frontline units in occupied Ukraine in convoys of civilian cars, the Ukrainian defense outlet Militarnyi reported. Soldiers filmed themselves loading jerrycans into ordinary trunks, an improvised workaround after Ukrainian drone strikes made fuel tankers too risky to run. Russian forces are also disguising army trucks as civilian vehicles along the supply route to occupied Crimea.
A video on the Exilenova+ Telegram channel showed Russians describing a convoy of passenger cars assembled to carry one metric ton of gasoline, Militarnyi reported. A man off-camera says the cars left the city of Kizilyurt in Dagestan, Russia, on the local head's orders, with the fuel destined for Russian units in occupied Tokmak, Zaporizhzhia Oblast. The footage shows jerrycans filling the trunks:
Besides the fuel, the drivers carried 1.5 million rubles ($20,900) to buy another batch of gasoline. Fuel keeps Russian frontline positions running: generators power electronic-warfare systems, charge batteries for reconnaissance and strike drones, and run communications gear in dugouts and observation posts.
Russian forces have also begun disguising army trucks as civilian transport because of Ukrainian drone attacks deep in the rear. In northern Crimea, monitors spotted a freshly painted blue Ural truck driven by a man in civilian clothes, still carrying military plates, its oversized body posing as a dump truck.
Ukraine's Defense Forces have intensified drone strikes on logistics trucks and fuel tankers on the roads from Russia to occupied Crimea. The attacks have already forced the occupiers to limit cargo traffic through the occupied part of Kherson Oblast toward the peninsula, and Russia has closed stretches of its own land corridor to keep them clear of strike drones.
Russian occupation authorities closed the Chonhar bridge linking occupied Kherson Oblast to Crimea for the second time in two days on 9 June, with the Russian-installed governor, Vladimir Saldo, claiming another overnight Ukrainian drone strike. The same night, drones swept across occupied Crimea, where a Crimea-monitoring channel reported explosions at a military airfield. Moscow claimed it downed scores of drones, while Ukraine stayed silent.
Saldo claimed the overnight strike caused fresh damage to the Chonhar bridge and that 20 drones were shot down on the approach. He asked drivers to use alternative routes, and traffic was rerouted through Armiansk and Perekop.
The bridge carries the R-280 highway, which the Russians built to link their Rostov-on-Don to occupied Crimea through occupied Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia oblasts, one of their main supply lines to the peninsula.
The strike on the peninsula came the same night, according to RFE/RL. The Crimea-monitoring Telegram channel Krymsky Veter reported an explosion in the Saky district (western Crimea) at 21:14, then an incoming strike in Dzhankoi (northern Crimea) before midnight. Drones also reached Sevastopol (southwestern Crimea), where a strong explosion hit the Kacha airfield at 00:36, followed by a second and third blast in the early hours.
Sevastopol's Russian-installed head, Mykhail Razvozhaev, claimed the military was repelling the attack with air defense and mobile fire groups. The city declared air alerts three times, at 22:33, 00:08, and 06:52, and lifted the last at 07:20. In its morning report, Russia's Defense Ministry claimed its air defenses destroyed 140 drones over seven regions, occupied Crimea, and the Azov and Black seas.
The first closure came overnight into 7 June, when Ukrainian FP-2 and Behemoth drones struck the Chonhar bridge. The Falanga multidomain operations center of the 1st separate assault regiment and the 475th separate assault regiment Code 9.2 carried out the strike. Militarnyi reported it was the first known combat use of the Behemoth kamikaze drone, unveiled in late May 2026 by the companies GLEFA and Culver Aerospace. The same day, the occupiers also halted traffic through their "Dzhankoi checkpoint."
Ukraine's head of the Office of the President, Kyrylo Budanov, said in early June that the strikes on Crimea's land corridor are a systematic campaign meant to complicate Russian plans. Ukraine's forces are also hitting the sea routes: the General Staff reported a Russian ship struck near Crimea, and overnight into 4 June, a Russian patrol boat was destroyed near the peninsula. Days before, occupation officials in Sevastopol had reported a similar overnight attack on the city.
«La cosa più triste è che non sono solo i fatti a essere spaventosi, ma anche le incredibili dinamiche che minacciano di spazzare via tutte le conquiste, i sacrifici fatti e i piani di una guerra che va avanti da dodici anni» scrive MartynoVa di Donetsk. Si definisce “esperta della vita in zona di guerra” e ha 6892 iscritti su Telegram. Descrive una situazione che le autorità russe non riescono più a dissimulare e che MartynoVa definisce «un’estate di terrore sanguinoso».
L’Ucraina ha interrotto quasi del tutto la logistica nemica in Crimea e nelle zone del Kherson occupate, questo grazie alla supremazia nei cieli assicurata da droni kamikaze di medio raggio che da un paio di settimane martellano qualsiasi mezzo militare o autocisterna che tenti di raggiungere la penisola. La benzina è introvabile, «apri il cellulare al mattino e vedi i video di persone che raccontano di non riuscire a tornare a casa dalla Crimea perché sono rimaste senza carburante». Le autorità hanno provato a ovviare razionando le scorte. A Sebastopoli, per esempio, si ha diritto a venti litri per veicolo a settimana: dovrebbero essere erogati tramite codici QR, ma il sistema non funziona, e a caos si è aggiunto caos. Prima dei disgraziati QR Code, il governo aveva tentato la strada dei coupon. Risultato? Una vera e propria borsa nera, con i tagliandi rivenduti a prezzo maggiorato.
Basta “navigare” per un po’ sui social per farsi un’idea. C’è chi filma un Hornet ucraino che pattuglia indisturbato l’autostrada in attesa di una preda, chi la prende con ironia e posta auto trainate da mute di cani, chi si vanta di «poter andare a lavoro in macchina» su strade semi-deserte. C’è chi si mostra visibilmente incazzato, come la donna che ha portato i tre figli in vacanza a Eupatoria, sulle rive del Mar Nero, e da due giorni non riesce a trovare una stazione di servizio: «Cosa dobbiamo fare con tre figli? Camminare? Perché nessuno pensa ai turisti?». Surreale.
Anche perché le forze speciali ucraine continuano a colpire con precisione chirurgica snodi nevralgici della logistica russa, segno che si tratta di una strategia studiata da tempo, con un obiettivo chiaro e adesso favorito dalla prevalenza tecnologica e dal deterioramento della capacità di combattimento e di reclutamento dell’esercito di Putin. Solo nella notte tra sabato e domenica gli ucraini in Crimea hanno messo fuori uso il deposito petrolifero di Semykolodezianska e il terminal marittimo di Feodosia: hub di stoccaggio del carburante e del gas – necessari a rifornire il primo la macchina militare, l’altro la popolazione della penisola occupata – che si trovano a oltre duecento chilometri dalla linea del fronte. «L’Ucraina fa con efficacia ciò che l’Iran ha fatto con lo Stretto di Hormuz – nota ChrisO_wiki, blogger militare con 250 mila follower su X -: avrebbe spaventato così tanto le compagnie di assicurazione russe che tutte le forniture di petrolio trasportate da camionisti civili verso la Crimea e l’Ucraina meridionale sono bloccate per il timore dei droni».
«Accelera come un pazzo se incroci un’autocisterna in autostrada. E se la vedi alle tue spalle, cerca di allontanarti il più rapidamente possibile» consiglia ancora MartynoVa, che mostra il proprio stupore per aver capito quanto accade solo dalle parole dei crimeani, disperati per la stagione turistica che rischia di andare in fumo, con «le prenotazioni che vengono già cancellate in tutta fretta». Sarebbero il trentuno per cento in meno, secondo il corrispondente della Bbc Steve Rosenberg. Conferma ulteriore di come i russi più ambienti abbiano vissuto questi quattro anni in una bolla, imbesuiti dalla propaganda del Cremlino, mentre almeno un milione di poveracci di vario tipo e provenienza andava al massacro.
Vero è che le unità UAV di Kyjiv, anche grazie agli Hornet di produzione americana e ai nuovi Martian controllati dall’intelligenza artificiale, hanno acquisito la capacità di attaccare a media e lunga distanza su gran parte del territorio russo, e le centinaia di droni che hanno raggiunto l’area di San Pietroburgo lo testimoniano. Ma vero è anche che la Crimea per l’Ucraina è qualcosa di più. È l’inizio di tutto, e riconquistarla, da quel febbraio 2014 in cui venne occupata nel silenzio complice della comunità internazionale, è la vera ossessione nazionale.
Sotto l’impulso di Kyrylo Budanov, i comandanti ucraini hanno prima messo fuori gioco i trasporti su rotaia, poi forti del dominio nel Mar Nero, hanno reso un’avventura la traversata in traghetto verso i porti della Crimea, con attese ai moli anche di quattro giorni. A quel punto, percorrere il corridoio terrestre che collega alla penisola, attraverso la M14/E58 da Melitopol a Sinferopoli, è diventato impossibile con un tiro al bersaglio giornaliero su centinaia di camion (e il traffico crollato del settantuno per cento), fino all’estremo tentativo russo: far arrivare navi ombra direttamente nei porti del Mar d’Azov conquistati nella primavera del 2022, per poi da lì rifornire di combustibile e munizioni le truppe impegnate nel Donetsk e a Zaporizhzhia. Tentativo già naufragato dopo le cinque imbarcazioni colate a picco in pochi giorni. Con l’aggiunta nelle ultime ore di un colpo mortale al ponte di Chongar, l’unico che resta a collegare la penisola al fronte meridionale, senza passare dalla M14.
Una situazione che non può che peggiorare, perché in Crimea dopo il carburante, potrebbero mancare l’acqua e la luce. La Crimea viene fornita di energia elettrica attraverso cavi sottomarini, ma le sottostazioni di partenza e di arrivo rimangono punti sensibili. Ecco perché Putin ha fatto costruire due centrali termoelettriche destinate a compensare in caso di guasti o danneggiamenti, se non fosse che per farle funzionare è necessario proprio quel petrolio che inizia a scarseggiare.
Non meno grave è la questione idrica: nel giugno del 2023 per fermare la controffensiva ucraina si decise di far saltare l’imponente diga di Kakhovka sul fiume Dnipro, allagando la regione del Kherson. Una scelta disperata, anche se vincente e con una conseguenza che non era stata messa in conto. Il crollo della diga, ha spiegato l’attivista pro-Ucraina Marco Setaccioli «ha di fatto azzerato la portata del Canale Nord-Crimeano (Severo-Krymskiy Kanal), che storicamente forniva l’85% dell’acqua utilizzata dalla penisola. I bacini idrici che alimentano il sud-est e il centro della Crimea (in particolare il bacino di Belogorsk e quello di Taigan) mostrano ampie aree completamente deidratate. Il fiume Biyuk-Karasu, che dovrebbe alimentarli, è quasi in secca». L’estate nella penisola sarà un incubo anche per questo.
Qual è il vero obiettivo degli strateghi di Volodymyr Zelensky? Cominciano a chiederselo gli analisti e anche i blogger russi. C’è chi preconizza che a cadere sarà il Kherson tagliato fuori dai rifornimenti e presto raggiungibile solo attraverso il percorso più lungo, cioè dalla Crimea. Altri notano, invece, che il ponte di Kerch viene risparmiato in maniera sistematica dagli attacchi, dopo essere stato l’obiettivo principale nelle prime fasi della guerra. Colpirlo non sarebbe una passeggiata, ma avrebbe un impatto sull’opinione pubblica russa devastante. «Se continua così, il prossimo obiettivo degli ucraini sarà di nuovo il ponte di Crimea» avverte sui social Lev Vershinin, ascoltato scrittore e Z-patriota.
Ne è convinto anche Ben Hodges, ex comandante dell’esercito americano in Europa: «Budanov distruggerà il maledetto ponte di Crimea». A meno che il braccio destro di Zelensky e i suoi generali non abbiano letto Sun Tzu: «Al nemico lasciate sempre una via di fuga».
L'articolo Riprendersi la Crimea, il sogno di Kyjiv non è più irrealizzabile proviene da Linkiesta.it.
This weekly update from the Kyiv Independent aims to shed light on the situation facing Ukrainians living under Russian occupation and the ever-tightening control of information imposed by the Kremlin.
Key news as of June 8:
Ukraine's drone strikes on the highways that feed Russian forces in occupied southern and eastern Ukraine are disrupting Russian logistics and will likely bite deeper in the near future, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW). The campaign is also rattling Russia's pro-war online community, where bloggers have begun turning their anger on the Kremlin's own military leadership. Russian forces are already rerouting and disguising convoys to keep supplies moving.
Ukraine's 3rd Army Corps said on 31 May that its drones had won "fire control" over five occupied cities. All five sit on or near the M-04 highway: Luhansk City, Starobilsk, Alchevsk, Bryanka, and Kadiivka. In plain terms, Ukrainian crews can now strike traffic on that road.
A Ukrainian drone operator argued the M-04 matters more to Russia than the better-known M-14. The M-14 links Rostov Oblast to occupied Crimea. The M-04 begins near Moscow and reaches Rostov-on-Don before carrying on to Russia's Black Sea coast and into the Caucasus. It feeds occupied Crimea, southern Ukraine, and Luhansk Oblast through the Russian towns of Millerovo and Kamensk-Shakhtinsky. It also supplies Donetsk Oblast through Novoshakhtinsk in Rostov Oblast.
The two highways connect, and Ukrainian forces are also hitting the H-20 road that joins them through Donetsk City. ISW assessed that the strikes will likely generate "even more profound cascading effects" across Russia's rear. The effort extends Ukraine's wider push to drive deep strikes further behind the front.
The strikes are already forcing changes on the ground. Leonid Pasechnik, the Russian-installed head of occupied Luhansk Oblast, issued a decree on 6 June. It bars regular bus and coach services on the section of the highway crossing occupied Luhansk.
Ukrainian Mariupol mayoral adviser Petro Andriushchenko reported on 7 June that Russian forces had changed their Mariupol–Berdiansk route. They now use local coastal roads instead of the M-14. ndriushchenko said the troops are passing army vehicles off as civilian, recoloring the tarpaulins over each cargo bed and spraying the trucks white. ISW assessed the detours will likely slow Russian supply runs as Ukraine keeps hunting vehicles.
Ukraine's strikes are landing in Russia's information space too. Russia's pro-war military bloggers are voicing discontent and panic over the campaign.
A pro-war blogger and former Storm-Z assault-unit instructor complained on 7 June that Ukraine is now striking factories and defense plants deep inside Russia while degrading Russian air-defense radars and systems. He blamed bureaucracy and state-corporate infighting for Moscow's failure to respond, and separately complained that Russia cannot read Ukraine's battlefield trends and underrates its capabilities. Other bloggers piled on: one claimed fuel shortages were stoking panic in occupied Crimea, while others faulted the Russian Defense Ministry and top general Valery Gerasimov for not striking Ukrainian logistics, especially the Dnipro River bridges.
ISW found the complaints are escalating, and that the strike campaigns are becoming "points of neuralgia" in Russia's ultranationalist crowd. It noted the discontent feeds on Russia's poor battlefield results, rising casualties, and economic strain. Even before this, Russia's war bloggers had turned on the Kremlin's commanders over inflated victory claims.
Ukrainian Special Operations Forces drone operators have established aerial control over part of the Russian land supply route from occupied Melitopol to Chonhar. The path is the entry point to Crimea, and they are destroying Russian equipment and disrupting Russian military logistics on the road, the 3rd Separate Special Purpose Regiment announces.
Russian forces on the peninsula already depend on a constrained set of supply lines: the Kerch Bridge (under sustained Ukrainian threat since 2022), the rail and road corridor through occupied Donetsk Oblast, and the Melitopol-Chonhar bottleneck. Ukrainian aerial denial of any one of these links compounds pressure on the others.
The new operation puts pressure on the land corridor's western end. On 31 May, Mariupol residents reported in local group chats that Russia shut down part of its land corridor from Crimea to occupied Donetsk because of Ukrainian drones.
The Melitopol-Chonhar segment crosses flat steppe with limited cover and funnels Russian convoys through narrow bridge crossings over the Syvash to reach the peninsula, the terrain optimal for drone operators to deny the air with persistent surveillance and strike capability.
The 3rd Separate Special Purpose Regiment is one of Ukraine's veteran Special Operations Forces units, named after the tenth-century Kyivan Rus prince.
The regiment's deployment of drone operators against Russian logistics on the Melitopol-Chonhar route fits within Ukraine's broader "logistics lockdown" approach to occupied territory. Ukraine's Defense Ministry has recently committed $113 million to medium-strike drones designed to target Russian rear logistics.
"Drones of the Special Operations Forces unit are destroying equipment and breaking the enemy's logistics routes on the Melitopol-Chonhar route," the 3rd Regiment said.
Russia's military presence in Crimea depends on a continuous supply of fuel, ammunition, and food, as well as on personnel rotation.
"As a result, the already-difficult logistics for supplying the Russian army and fuel to the peninsula have grown harder," the SSO said.
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