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Update: Drone strikes cause blackouts, school closures in occupied Sevastopol

by Abbey Fenbert May 17, 2024 5:59 AM 2 min read
View into one of the bays of Sevastopol, Feb. 14, 2024, in occupied Crimea. Illustrative purposes. (Ulf Mauder/picture alliance via Getty Images)
This audio is created with AI assistance

Drone attacks targeting the port city of Sevastopol in occupied Crimea overnight on May 17 damaged a substation, causing blackouts that prompted occupation authorities to close schools.

Dozens of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and naval drones targeted Sevastopol and nearby Balaklava in the early hours of May 17, Mikhail Razvozhayev the Russian-installed head of Sevastopol, claimed via Telegram.

Debris from a falling drone hit the Sevastopol substation, Razvozhayev said. Equipment at the substation had to be shut down, triggering power outages.

Razvozhayev later announced that restoring the substation would take at least a day to complete and that the city would have to introduce spot blackouts while repairs are underway.

"In connection with the current situation, I have decided to cancel classes in all schools, secondary vocational education institutions, and kindergartens," he said.

Russian media: Novorossiysk port, oil depot hit in overnight attack
Drones and missiles struck an oil refinery and seaport in the Russian city of Novorossiysk in the early hours of May 17, causing explosions and power outages, the Russian Telegram news channel Astra reported.

Russian forces destroyed "dozens" of UAVs and over five naval drones in the region using small arms, Razvozhayev claimed. He said that Russian air defense intercepted 51 drones over occupied Crimea during the night.

No casualties were reported.

This marks the third reported attack in two days against occupied Sevastopol. Occupation officials and local Telegram channels reported attacks on Russia's Belbek military airfield outside Sevastopol overnight on May 15 and later that evening.

The partisan group Atesh said that the attacks damaged the airfield's main missile and artillery depot.

In recent months, Ukraine has intensified its attacks on occupied Crimea, targeting Russian military assets in and around the Black Sea.

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Russian forces have encountered a new enemy in the Black Sea: Ukraine’s arsenal of naval kamikaze drones. These deceptively small unmanned vehicles have targeted Russia’s Black Sea Fleet since September 2022, picking off Russian battleships one by one. The latest of Ukraine’s maritime conquests was…

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