{"id":17817,"date":"2026-07-16T16:55:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T16:55:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/17817\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T16:55:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T16:55:16","slug":"ukraines-strategy-to-strangle-crimea-drone-bombardment-attacks-on-infrastructure-and-psychological-blows-to-russian-troops-international","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/17817\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine\u2019s strategy to strangle Crimea: Drone bombardment, attacks on infrastructure and psychological blows to Russian troops | International"},"content":{"rendered":"

Something is changing in Crimea, the territory that represents the most valuable prize of the imperial plan launched by Vladimir Putin in 2014. The Russian president has long regarded the peninsula he seized from Ukraine<\/a> as an impregnable fortress. The apparent normality, however, is a trompe-l\u2019\u0153il behind which Moscow is trying to mask significant blows, like those suffered in recent months by its fleet docked in Sevastopol and by its air-defense systems in that occupied stronghold.<\/p>\n

Amid the offensive Kyiv has launched \u2014 in an attempt to choke the Russian-occupied territory logistically by bombing bridges, rail lines, roads, and infrastructure \u2014 reality calls Putin\u2019s propaganda into question. \u201cUkraine has not renounced Crimea,\u201d stresses Ukrainian historian and analyst Oleksii Otkydach, who was born on the peninsula.<\/p>\n

Recovering Crimea, 12 years after losing it, is today less of a daydream for Kyiv than it was a few months ago, although authorities that hold power there alongside tens of thousands of Russians pushed there by the Kremlin have put down roots during the past decade.<\/p>\n

\"Mapas<\/p>\n

That is why Volodymyr Zelenskiy\u2019s government<\/a> is sending, with this unprecedented offensive, a threefold message: to Russians, to the Ukrainian population, and to the more than two million people living in Crimea \u2014both to those who support Moscow\u2019s positions and to supporters of Kyiv. It reminds them that Ukraine has not forgotten Crimea, that it will try by all means to recover it and that, if it cannot, it will make life unbearable for the occupying forces.<\/p>\n

Sevastopol<\/a>, the peninsula\u2019s most populous city, cannot even guarantee power and must ration fuel against a background of explosions, as EL PA\u00cdS\u2019s special correspondent found at the end of June. Residents endure shortages and a sense of insecurity they had not experienced since 2014.<\/p>\n

Most Ukrainians on the street have not shown optimism in recent years about the possibility of recovering the territory occupied by Russia \u2014 about 20% of the country, including Crimea. Pessimism spread especially after Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion in February 2022. But now, with drone strikes against the enemy, public opinion is beginning to see a possible turning point, and the issue is aired daily by authorities and the media.<\/p>\n

A calculated strategy<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a long time, Crimea was a fetish, the crown jewel of Putin\u2019s imperial myth<\/a>. Now that fantasy is collapsing before our eyes,\u201d says Alim Aliev, a human rights activist from the Tatar minority, an ethnic group whose persecution has intensified since 2014. \u201cWhat we have witnessed in recent weeks is not simply a series of random attacks but a meticulously calculated military and diplomatic strategy,\u201d he says. Ukraine\u2019s goal: to turn the peninsula into an island cut off from supplies and without defenses.<\/p>\n

After besieging the lines of communication<\/a> \u2014 roads, bridges, and railways that move supplies \u2014 the next step will be to render unusable once and for all the famous and crucial Kerch Bridge that links Crimea with Russia, the Tatar activist predicts. According to Aliev, the aim is to deliver a blow that is not only logistical and military but also psychological, demonstrating the \u201cdismantling of the Russian myth.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"A queue of vehicles at a Crimean gas station waiting to refuel amid restrictions.Alexey Pavlishak (REUTERS)<\/p>\n

Defending and maintaining the peninsula under occupation is proving increasingly costly for Moscow. Its geography and location, surrounded by the Black Sea, force it to pay a high \u2014 and rising \u2014 economic, logistical, military, and human price. At the same time, Russia must maintain military pressure elsewhere, such as in the Ukrainian Donbas region, in the Russian capital itself, and across a range of energy facilities in different regions of the country that Kyiv is targeting militarily.<\/p>\n

The question posed by Ukraine\u2019s recent weeks-long offensive against occupied Crimea \u2014 which it is trying to recover \u2014 and, simultaneously, against Moscow \u2014 which it is trying to weaken \u2014 is whether Russia can withstand pressure on all fronts and whether it will make significant changes to its deployments under the current circumstances, which could leave some areas more vulnerable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no way Russia can defend Moscow and Crimea without losing strength on other fronts,\u201d says Oleh Rybachuk of the Centre of United Actions and a former Ukrainian deputy prime minister.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe attacks on Crimea create a complex dilemma. If it does not reinforce its defense, the situation on the peninsula will continue to deteriorate,\u201d agrees historian Otkydach. \u201cIf, on the contrary, Russia decides to bolster Crimea\u2019s protection, it must allocate huge amounts of air-defense systems, fuel, vehicles and logistical resources. That means those resources will no longer be available elsewhere, creating opportunities for attacks on strategic targets in other regions, such as refineries in Moscow, Yaroslavl, or Ryazan,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

The deployment of modern drones built by Ukraine<\/a> aims to complicate the already difficult supply effort the Kremlin must carry out in Crimea. \u201cThat territory is totally dependent on Ukraine: its water supply, its roads, its logistics\u2026 Everything depends on Ukraine. And now we are cutting the logistical routes,\u201d explains Rybachuk.<\/p>\n

The prelude to the current strikes on communication lines and energy infrastructure was months of weakening the Russian fleet docked in Sevastopol and its air-defense systems, this analyst recalls; for that reason, \u201cnow they [the Russians] are half blind.\u201d Despite the high arms expenditure Kyiv is incurring, he estimates that, for now, they have a sufficient arsenal.<\/p>\n

\"\"Sevastopol, Crimea\u2019s most populous city, on June 29.Javier Cuesta<\/p>\n

\u201cCrimea could never exist without its connection to Ukraine, to the rest of the mainland,\u201d Otkydach, who supports his country\u2019s current strategy mainly through the use of drones, says. \u201cFaced with a shortage of classic long-range attack means, such as ballistic missiles, cruise missiles or aerial bombs, the use of drones has become an effective alternative,\u201d he adds. \u201cThey are significantly cheaper and, as recent events have shown, can inflict major damage on military and strategic targets.\u201d<\/p>\n

The peninsula \u201chas enormous symbolic and political value for the Kremlin<\/a>,\u201d Otkydach stresses. \u201cIt is one of the main pillars of Vladimir Putin\u2019s narrative, so any vulnerability there poses a significant political problem,\u201d he continues. \u201cThe historic advantage of being an enormous country \u2014 the largest in Europe \u2014 has now become a weakness for Russia, since its military doctrine relied on the fact that it is a nuclear power and that no one would ever dare to attack its military infrastructure,\u201d says Rybachuk. To try to hold Crimea, \u201cthe Kremlin is moving defenses from other parts of Russia, leaving those areas even less protected,\u201d the former deputy prime minister adds.<\/p>\n

The current situation, Otkydach notes, is seen differently by Crimea\u2019s residents who support Kyiv and those who back Moscow. For the former, \u201cthese attacks represent hope.\u201d For the latter, especially \u201cmany Russian citizens who moved illegally to the peninsula after the occupation, the situation generates fear and uncertainty.\u201d The demographic picture has changed with the arrival of some 800,000 Russians since 2014, estimates Aliev.<\/p>\n

They see their investments, properties, and new lives driven by the invasion at risk, the Tatar activist adds. Moreover, Otkydach adds, they face \u201chaving to answer for their illegal presence on Ukrainian territory\u201d before the courts. This legal dimension is another of the strategies Kyiv seeks to advance in its attempt to recover the peninsula.<\/p>\n

Rybachuk, optimistic, believes there is no doubt that sooner or later there will be an \u201cexodus\u201d of Russian officials and their families fleeing the peninsula. As a preliminary step, he predicts another push this coming autumn in Kyiv\u2019s arms revolution, which will allow it to strike targets even farther inside Russia with ballistic missiles.<\/p>\n

None of that appears likely, in principle, to happen in the short term. Meanwhile, according to the information Otkydach receives from inside Crimea, \u201cthe occupation authorities are trying to convey the image that everything is under control, following a Soviet-style communication model.\u201d The historian admits it is increasingly difficult to communicate securely because of \u201crestrictions on internet access and messaging services.\u201d Meanwhile, those awaiting liberation rely on one message, says Aliev: \u201cUkraine has not forgotten us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sign up for our weekly newsletter<\/a> to get more English-language news coverage from EL PA\u00cdS USA Edition<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Something is changing in Crimea, the territory that represents the most valuable prize of the imperial plan launched…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[426,999,64,33,2437],"class_list":["post-17817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-crimea","tag-donbas","tag-kremlin","tag-vladimir-putin","tag-volodimir-zelenski"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ukraine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}