Russian authorities suspended train service for Crimea after a Ukrainian drone knocked out a locomotive, further squeezing commerce to the occupied Black Sea peninsula struggling with fuel shortages.
The June 8 attack came days after Russian officials ordered new restrictions on commercial and passenger traffic along major highways leading to the region.
For weeks, Ukraine’s military has ratcheted up a campaign of medium-range drone strikes targeting cargo trucks — gasoline and fuel trucks, above all — that supply Crimea.
That, plus a broader Ukrainian drone campaign hitting Russian oil refineries, pipelines, and related infrastructure, has led gasoline shortages on the peninsula, whose economy is heavily dependent on Russian tourists.
Ukraine’s defense minister has called the middle-strike campaign a “logistics lockdown” for Russian forces.
Crimea, which Russia occupied and annexed 12 years ago, is linked directly to mainland Russia via a billion-dollar road-and-rail bridge that spans the Kerch Strait, to the peninsula’s east.
A ferry also provides access to and from the peninsula, via the Kerch Strait, but its capacity is limited.
The bridge, known variously as the Kerch Bridge or the Crimea Bridge, was targeted in a Ukrainian truck bomb in 2022, which prompted Russian authorities to order restrictions on truck traffic that remain in place.
The route via the Kerch Bridge is substantially longer for Russian tourists to drive, and many instead opt to drive along the 700-kilometer highway, which runs along the northern shore of the Sea of Azov: from the border with Russia, through Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, to Crimea.
On June 6, the Russian-appointed head of Ukraine’s Luhansk region announced restrictions on passenger and commercial traffic along that road, as well as another major road that runs south through the cities of Luhansk and Donetsk, to the coastal city of Mariupol.
That decree followed a similar one issued on May 21 by another Russian-appointed administrator that also restricted truck traffic along the coastal highway.
The situation on the highway is “catastrophic,” Ukrainian military analyst Vladyslav Seleznyov told RFE/RL’s Donbas.Realities. “Carriers are reportedly unwilling to send fuel tankers to the peninsula, even for significantly higher payments.”
A Ukrainian drone on June 7 damaged a bridge at the town of Chongar, on the northeast of the peninsula, prompting its closure. Officials ordered traffic re-routed to a different bridge further crossing to the west, adding more distance for passenger and commercial traffic trying to access the region.
On June 8, Russian railway authorities suspended passenger service for Crimea after a Ukrainian drone hit a locomotive, wounding the train’s engineer and killing an assistant. Several trains service the peninsula, including ones coming from as far away as Moscow.
On the peninsula itself, officials last week restricted the sale of gasoline, instituting a system of coupons, and prioritizing public transport and other essential services. Long lines of drivers have been reported outside numerous fueling stations.
Gasoline shortages have also been reported in Russian occupied Luhansk and Donetsk.
Some grocery and food stores in Crimea have also reported shortages of some basic food staples, though it was not clear how widespread the shortages were, and whether it was directly related to supply issues, or people panic buying.
Hotel bookings on the peninsula have dropped by 31 percent compared to the same period last year, the newspaper Kommersant reported.
One Crimean activist, who spoke to RFE/RL’s Crimea.Realities on condition of anonymity, said passenger traffic on the peninsula’s roads was significantly lighter in recent days.
By contrast, cars last summer had to wait up to 10 minutes to pull onto the main east-west Feodosia highway, the activist said.
“Ordinary Crimeans are suffering even more; many of whom are now unable to run their businesses, get to work, or get to hospitals,” the activist said.
