Ukraine’s Drone Strikes Challenge Russia’s Grip on Crimea by Sky and Sea
KYIV, Ukraine — The Black Sea peninsula of Crimea is normally packed in the summer with families enjoying beach vacations. But not this year, as Ukraine’s relentless drone strikes make life increasingly miserable for the estimated 2.5 million people now living there.
“Transportation is completely at a standstill. No gasoline, no fuel, no power. The stores are closed. The banks are closed. Nothing works at all. There’s no water either,” a Russian woman said on social media.
Crimea was the first territory Russian leader Vladimir Putin seized when he initially invaded Ukraine in 2014. An estimated 1 million Russian troops and civilians have poured into the territory since then. But the campaign of Ukrainian drone strikes has ramped up dramatically in recent months, targeting Russian military facilities, supply ships, and infrastructure that sustains the peninsula.
A Coveted Territory Under Pressure
Crimea juts out into both the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, and its strategic location along with its mild climate has made it a prize for centuries. For Russia’s military, it is a vital warm-water naval port to the south. Russian Empress Catherine the Great first brought the territory into the Russian Empire in 1783.
But daily life has become increasingly difficult. Ukrainian drone strikes are causing power outages, fuel shortages, and cuts in cellphone service across the peninsula. Hanna Shelest, head of security programs at the Ukrainian Prism think tank, said Russians eagerly moved to Crimea a decade ago. “Some of the Russian military were coming together with their families, buying property and dreaming about staying there,” she told NPR.
Russian security forces still maintain tight control over Ukrainians who have remained. “You are arrested if you speak Ukrainian, if you have a Ukrainian [computer] keyboard, if you have Ukrainian music. Any demonstration of you being Ukrainian, and you are arrested,” said Shelest, who is based in the southern Ukrainian port city of Odessa.
Retired U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery, who comes to Ukraine regularly to help train the military, said the pressure on Crimea is becoming unsustainable. “Putin’s got a problem here,” he said. “You cannot keep that many people in a place with limited water, no fuel, limited foodstuffs. I mean, they’re going to have to leave.”
Operation MoLoChKa: A New Naval Front
Ukraine’s recent campaign has included strikes that cut electricity, cell phone service, and water for extended periods. The daily attacks have also targeted Russian ships and ferries that deliver food, fuel, and other essential supplies from Russia.
Ukraine’s military says in the past month it has hit more than 130 Russian vessels in the Sea of Azov and more than 80 in the Black Sea. The strikes are part of Operation MoLoChKa, launched on July 6, 2026, and commanded by Robert “Magyar” Brovdi, head of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces. The operation name stands for “Moscow will fall through Crimea” and targets Russian shadow fleet vessels — ships circumventing sanctions to transport oil, fuel, and other cargo that finance the war, according to Wikipedia.
As of August 8, the operation had struck 218 vessels: 134 in the Sea of Azov and 84 in the Black Sea. The campaign has forced Russia to halt shipping through the Don-Azov Canal and reduced the Kerch Strait ferry crossing capacity by about 75%. Russia’s largest Black Sea oil port, Sheskharis, halted loading on July 21.
“Russia overestimated its own naval power and didn’t expect these measures from us,” said Dmytro Pletenchuk, spokesman for Ukraine’s Navy, as reported by NPR. “Now they’re trying to catch up with our technology. But it takes them six months and we keep improving. Russia is now at a logistics dead end.”
Russia still controls the entire coastline of the Sea of Azov, an inland sea. Yet it has effectively lost control of the water itself — losing it to a country that doesn’t currently have traditional naval ships or sailors at sea. Ukraine has become the first country in the world to develop and deploy powerful sea drones that operate both on the water’s surface and underwater.
“The Ukraine Navy is the most successful navy in the world without having a ship get underway for a day,” Montgomery said.
The Novorossiysk Strike
On August 12, Ukraine carried out what President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called a “unique operation” targeting the naval base in Novorossiysk — Russia’s last major stronghold of the Black Sea Fleet, more than 300 kilometers from the front line. According to the Kyiv Independent, four Russian warships were damaged: two frigates (Admiral Makarov and Admiral Essen), a small missile ship (Buyan-M), and a patrol ship (Vasil Bykov).
Ukraine used Palianytsia jet-powered drones, Neptune missiles, and naval drones in the attack. “The occupation fleet and all the infrastructure supporting it will not be safe as long as Russian aggression continues,” Zelenskyy said on X, as reported by Euronews.
The strike demonstrated that Moscow’s decision to move much of its fleet eastwards from Sevastopol has not put it beyond the reach of Ukraine’s forces. An 8-year-old boy was killed in the attack on Novorossiysk, while eight people were injured, regional Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said. The grain terminal in Novorossiysk was damaged and temporarily suspended operations, according to the Maritime Executive.
Russia’s Response and the Grain Crisis
Russian forces still control all of Crimea, though some Russian civilians appear to be leaving. And while the Russians are suffering tough blows, they’re also delivering some of their own. The Russian Navy is striking international cargo ships that go to pick up Ukrainian corn, wheat, and sunflower oil in and around the port of Odessa. Ten sailors were killed in one recent attack, and now most international ships have been scared away.
“These ships are not even Ukrainian. [They’re] only guilty of coming to Ukraine,” Shelest said.
Ukraine, which depends heavily on agriculture, is now at the peak of its harvest season and has lost its main export route. About 90% of Ukrainian grain and sunflower shipments leave from Odesa and the neighboring ports of Chornomorsk and Pivdenne.
Ukraine has proposed a deal with Russia for both sides to halt attacks on civilian ships in the Black Sea, made through a third party, according to The Guardian. Moscow has yet to respond.
Analysis: A Strategic Shift in Modern Warfare
Military analysts say Ukraine’s drone campaign represents a fundamental shift in naval warfare. “This is the advent of unmanned undersea vessels, unmanned surface vessels,” Montgomery said. “They’re very small, very hard to track. [Russia] can control the whole coastline and not have visibility to what’s going on in the middle of the inland sea.”
The campaign has forced Russia to divert significant resources to protect its naval assets. Satellite imagery shows Russia installing large overhead anti-drone nets across submarine berths at naval bases, including at the Rybachiy nuclear submarine base on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Pacific — more than 4,500 miles from Ukraine, as reported by 19FortyFive.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s strikes on Russian land logistics have led to an increase in shipping through the Sea of Azov, providing more maritime targets. Sidhar Kaushal, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London, called these actions the “logical continuation” of the Crimea campaign, as noted by Mezha.
What’s Next
Military analysts say Ukraine’s forces are in no position to launch an offensive to retake Crimea. President Zelenskyy recently told Fox News that Ukraine isn’t trying to recapture Crimea — at least for now.
“The land is very important. It’s our territory. It’s our history. It’s about our houses. But the most important [thing is] not to lose people,” Zelenskyy said.
Russia’s Putin called Crimea “an inseparable part of Russia” when he seized it 12 years ago. Today, he’s conspicuously silent about the troubles there. As Ukraine’s drone campaign continues to tighten the noose around the peninsula, the question of Crimea’s future — and Russia’s ability to hold it — has become one of the defining strategic challenges of the war.