Ukrainian drones struck occupied Crimea overnight into 25 June, hitting two thermal power plants and plunging cities across the peninsula into darkness, monitoring channels reported. Drones flew in from every direction while the occupation's air-defense crews worked the skies, and a blast was reported near a military airfield. Occupation authorities sounded the air alert only hours after the attack began.
Two power plants hit, cities in the dark
Drones swept onto the peninsula from multiple directions overnight, the Ukrainian monitoring Telegram channels Exilenova+ and Krymsky Veter reported. The Tavrida and Balaklava thermal power plants came under fire.
Power then failed across a string of Crimean districts. Yalta lost electricity entirely for a time, and the resort town of Yevpatoria reported drone activity too. Exilenova+ published a video it said showed a strike on energy infrastructure in Simferopol, followed by the lights going out.
Drone flights and explosions were logged across the Pervomaiske, Krasnoperekopsk, and Simferopol districts, in Simferopol and Sevastopol themselves, and in Yevpatoria and Yalta. The partisan movement ATESH said the attack covered the entire occupied peninsula.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said earlier that Ukraine's Crimea operation is "carefully calculated" and that the right partner support would let Kyiv quickly force Russia toward peace.
A depot supplying two Russian regions with fuel is burning after an overnight drone strike
A late warning and gunfire over homes
Occupation authorities declared an air-threat alert only after 2 a.m., even though the drones had been in the air for several hours, local channels reported. In Sevastopol, mobile fire groups tried to shoot down the drones directly over residential buildings. A powerful explosion was reported near the Kacha military airfield around 4 a.m.
Sevastopol governor blames "overload"
In Sevastopol, the power went out without schedule or warning. The Russian-installed governor, Mikhail Razvozhayev, blamed an overload of the electricity network outside the region rather than the strikes.
"At the command of the dispatcher of the Black Sea regional dispatch directorate, a temporary electricity-restriction regime has been introduced in Sevastopol," Razvozhayev wrote.
Ukraine drones black out all of occupied Sevastopol. Balaklava power plant was target
He said the limits aimed to prevent an accident across the wider energy system, that a shutdown schedule was not yet available, and urged residents not to switch on high-power appliances.
