Crimea’s lights go out again—and Ukraine says two more Pantsirs were hit

Occupied Crimea lost power two nights in a row this week, according to Russian officials. Over the same days, Ukraine’s General Staff said its forces hit two Pantsir air defense systems on the peninsula. Sevastopol, home port of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, is again living on rationed electricity.

The two strands belong together. After interviewing drone forces commander Robert “Magyar” Brovdi, AP reported on 10 August that much of Russia’s Soviet-era air defense hardware runs on the power grid—one reason Crimea’s electricity network keeps being targeted. Seen that way, this week brought pressure on Crimea’s air defense from two directions: on the launchers, and possibly on the power some of them depend on.

Two nights without stable power

The grid was already fragile. Crimea has gone dark repeatedly since summer. In July, Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces said they hit the Balaklava power plant in Sevastopol, one of two plants that together supply about 90% of Crimea’s electricity.

On 3 November, Sevastopol occupation governor Mikhail Razvozhaev claimed that another strike had hit energy facilities outside the city. He added that the power reaching Sevastopol could not sustain even a schedule of two hours with electricity and six without.

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Ukrainian drones black out occupied Sevastopol and hit the Balaklava power plant

The lights went out again overnight on 4 November. Russia’s Energy Ministry claimed the outages across Crimea and Sevastopol followed a Ukrainian night attack. Oleg Kryuchkov, an adviser to Crimea’s occupation head, separately claimed the restrictions resulted from a new accident in the power system outside the region, Russian Telegram channel Astra reported.

Two more Pantsirs

Ukraine’s General Staff said on 4 November that its forces hit a Pantsir-S2 and another Pantsir system in Crimea on 3 November and overnight on 4 November. The Pantsir is a missile-and-gun air defense system. According to the General Staff, these systems shield Russian sites in Crimea and southern Russia from Ukrainian drones and missiles, so each one hit weakens Russia’s air defense.

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In February, the SBU said its Alpha unit had halved the number of Russian Pantsir systems in 2025. Overnight on 6 March, Ukrainian drones hit two Pantsir-S2 units near Dzhankoi, sources in Ukraine’s security services told Ukrainska Pravda.