Ukrainian Defense Forces drones struck a Russian S-300/S-400 air defense position near Kerch and a major 220/35 kV substation in the village of Mariianivka in Crimea's Kurmansky district early on 29 June, triggering fires at both sites and causing widespread power outages across occupied territories, Falcon Insight and the Crimean Wind Telegram channel report.
The strikes are part of sustained Ukrainian drone pressure on the occupied peninsula throughout the past week, including recent strikes on the Sakska thermal power plant in the Saky area on 28 June, Falcon Insight reported.
S-300/S-400 position near Kerch
A fire broke out at the S-300/S-400 position following the strike, with NASA FIRMS thermal anomaly data registering abnormal temperatures at the site at 02:20, according to Falcon Insight. Satellite imagery confirms the presence of prepared launcher positions at the location, the monitoring channel reported.
Mariianivka substation
The Mariianivka PS 220/35 kV substation — a transit and distribution node within the Dzhankoi main electricity networks — serves as a key link in the northern and central Crimea energy corridor connecting the Simferopol thermal power plant through Elevatorna, Mariianivka, Dzhankoi, and Krasnoperekopsk, according to Falcon Insight. Residents reported a fire at the substation following the strike, the Crimean Wind channel reported. Power outages were recorded in Krasnohvardiiske district from approximately 04:00, according to the channel.
Explosions were also reported overnight in Sevastopol — in the area of Kazacha Bukhta bay and in the village of Orlivka on the city's northern side — as well as in Bakchysarai district, near Nekrasivka village, where a substation was reportedly damaged, and in Kerch and Feodosiia, Crimean Wind reported.
Blackouts across occupied territories
Large-scale power disruptions were recorded across occupied Crimea, occupied Kherson Oblast, and occupied Donetsk following the overnight attacks, monitoring Telegram channels reported.
Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-installed head of occupied Kherson Oblast, confirmed widespread outages in the region. "All districts of Kherson Oblast have been left fully or partially without electricity," Saldo stated.
In occupied Donetsk and Mariupol, partial blackouts were recorded from around midnight, according to Petro Andriushchenko, head of the Occupation Studies Center, writing on Telegram on 29 June. He attributed the outages to a series of strikes in the areas of Yenakiieve and Novoazovsk, as well as attacks on energy infrastructure in the Pryazovia area of occupied Zaporizhzhia Oblast.
"As of now, electricity supply has begun to recover, but very patchily. The exact cause of the outage is unknown. At the same time, against the backdrop of heat and record load on the networks, the risk of not a partial but a complete blackout is only growing," Andriushchenko wrote.
A fire also broke out in occupied Melitopol following the overnight drone attack, with no information available on the scale of damage.
