Ukraine Just Plunged Crimea Into Its Darkest Night Ever

The Military Show

Ukraine's latest strikes have plunged occupied Crimea into its darkest night yet, crippling power, logistics, and Russian military infrastructure. From Sevastopol to Kerch, coordinated drone attacks targeted energy facilities, air defenses, fuel depots, and key transport links, exposing growing vulnerabilities across the peninsula. In this video, we break down how Ukraine's campaign to isolate Crimea is reshaping the battlefield and why these devastating attacks could mark a major turning point in the war.  ⏱️ CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Ukraine Blackout Attack on Sevastopol Crimea 05:23 - Ukraine Drone Strike Destroys 23 Russian Defenses 06:50 - Russian Logistics and Oil Depots Hit in Kerch 09:01 - Ukraine Destroys Key North Crimean Railway Bridge 12:32 - Crimea Fuel Rations and Tourism Collapse Explained 14:43 - Is Russia Losing Control of Occupied Crimea?  Support us directly as we bring you independent, up-to-date reporting on military news and global conflicts by clicking here: https://www.youtube.com/@TheMilitaryShow/join  #militarystrategy #militarydevelopments #militaryanalysis #themilitaryshow  SOURCES: https://pastebin.com/vtSuUNSD

Transcript

00:00Through the darkness will come the Ukrainian light.

00:03In Crimea, that is truer than it is anywhere else in the occupied territories.

00:08For months, Ukraine has been engaged in a campaign of isolating Crimea,

00:12turning the occupied peninsula into an island marooned from Russian support.

00:17Then the night of June 24, 2026 happened. Ukraine just plunged Crimea into its darkest

00:23night ever. But it gets so much worse for Russia. Something dark happened beyond the lights going

00:30out. Something really dark. With the electricity cut, Ukraine destroyed everything.

00:35We take you first to the Balaklava power plant in the city of Sevastopol.

00:40This city is supposed to be the crown jewel of the entire Crimean occupation for Putin.

00:45It was the home of the Black Sea Fleet, at least until that fleet was driven out by Ukraine's

00:49brilliant campaign against Russia's warships. But now Sevastopol is vulnerable, and Ukraine

00:54proved that, with a devastating series of overnight strikes on June 24 that plunged the entire city

01:00into darkness. Balaklava thermal power plant was the primary target, and Ukraine's aerial

01:06assaulted precisely what it was supposed to do. Cut the power, plunge the occupiers into darkness.

01:12On a night where explosions were also recorded by Ukrainian monitoring channels in Kerch,

01:18Vakchyserai, and close to Mount Ipetri, which is an important base in its own right due to hosting

01:23a radar station used by a radio-technical battalion of the Russian aerospace forces,

01:27Ukraine clearly caused enough damage to the Balaklava plant to plunge Crimea's occupiers

01:32into a deep and dark night. Details of the scale of the damage caused are still unclear,

01:38but the panic coming out of the Russian puppet authorities on the peninsula tells us all that

01:42we need to know. Moscow-installed Sevastopol governor Mikhail Razvozaev has taken a telegram

01:49to explain what happened, claiming that his city temporarily lost power as a result of Ukrainian

01:54strikes against infrastructure. Follow-up posts saw the governor make the strange claims that a

02:00combination of air defenses, mobile fire teams, and Russian military and aviation had

02:04repelled two attacks by the Ukrainian armed forces, shooting down 70 drones in the process.

02:10But repelled is an interesting choice of words. Russia's air defenses have tried to stop Ukraine's

02:16attacks on Crimea. However, they have clearly failed. And Razvozaev even unintentionally revealed

02:22that in an update post where he confirmed that power has yet to be restored in the Leninsky

02:27and Gagorinsky districts, along with several streets inside Sevastopol.

02:30Well, Razvozaev, you can't claim that an attack was repelled when an entire city has been plunged

02:36into darkness because of those attacks. What Razvozaev doesn't say in his telegram posts is that

02:41Crimea was already dealing with power issues before Ukraine's June 24 strike. Rolling power cuts had

02:47already been instituted across much of Crimea on June 23, which authorities claimed was a preventative

02:54measure. What they were supposed to be preventing isn't exactly clear. The Kiev Independent reports that

02:59these rolling blackouts have already affected half of Crimea, and they uncoincidentally came in the wake

03:04of a Ukrainian attack on fuel reservoirs stored at the Kerch thermal power plant. Keep Kerch in mind,

03:11we're going to be coming back to it. Russian proxy and occupation spokesperson Oleg Kryuchkov explained the

03:17situation, stating, We are seeing almost daily attacks on Crimea's energy infrastructure. There is

03:22maneuvering and redistribution of power. Preventative load-shedding schedules have been introduced.

03:27If there is an overload in the Crimean power grid, they will be implemented periodically.

03:32Everything depends on the situation. Well, the situation just got a hell of a lot worse.

03:37A peninsula that largely relies on the Ukrainian mainland for its electricity is being cut off,

03:42and Ukraine has just gone after one of the few power stations on Crimea itself to drive the point

03:47home. Beyond all of the panic, Rasmusayev also tried to cut an inspiring figure for the occupiers

03:53that Ukraine has plunged into darkness. They will not intimidate us with the absence of light.

03:58We have lived through worse, and we will stand now as well, the Sevastopol governor declared,

04:03as he also meekly told residents that it was probably a good idea to conserve the battery lives of their

04:08phones if they wanted to stand any chance of making emergency calls. Oh, the irony. They will not

04:14intimidate us, really. From a puppet governor for a regime that has made attacking Ukraine's energy

04:19grid, especially during the winter, one of its key strategies for terrorizing Ukrainian civilians

04:24and placing pressure on the country's government, this statement rings hollow.

04:29After all, it was only on June 2nd that a Russian missile and drone attack left eight regions of

04:34Ukraine without electricity, and Russia engaged in an aerial campaign against Ukraine's energy grid

04:39that led to most of the nation's regions imposing blackouts just to survive throughout the winter.

04:44A call to action isn't going to work in Crimea, especially when its occupiers are being forced

04:49to feel the effects of a special military operation, they were told, would be long over by now.

04:55What we've seen here is a little dose of revenge from Ukraine. Coupled with a massive dose of a

04:59strategy that is designed to isolate Crimea and make the peninsula untenable for Russia to maintain,

05:05a shift is happening in Crimea. But the worst of it for Putin and his cronies is that June 24th

05:11was just

05:11the highlight. As Sevastopol was plunged into darkness, Ukraine had been striking all over

05:17Crimea in a wave of attacks that took an already bad situation and made it much worse for Russia.

05:22Just the night before Ukraine gave Crimea its darkest night ever, it had delivered the fieriest night.

05:28The culmination of a 60-target sweep took place, with Ukraine's unmanned systems forces adding a pair of

05:34launchers, an anti-air gun, and a radar to a count of 23 Russian air defense assets destroyed in June

05:40alone, Euromiden press reports. But there was so much more than that. Fuel sites, three expensive

05:47Russian drones, and plenty of other targets added up to the 60 that Ukraine's unmanned systems forces

05:52said they'd pulled off prior to forcing the blackout. There's a lot to cover here, so stick with us.

05:57Near Baharova, Ukraine hit a Pantsir S1 system. A little further away in Korotna, Ukraine's drones

06:03took out an anti-aircraft gun and an S-300 launcher. Kerch was also hit, we told you to keep

06:09that in

06:09mind, and it lost a Nebo-U radar along with much more. Ukraine also took aim at fuel tankers throughout

06:15the occupied territories that were clearly intended to reach Crimea, and helped to alleviate the growing

06:20fuel crisis on the peninsula. In Horlivka, which is in the Donetskoblast, Ukraine took out a fuel rail

06:26tanker. The supply transport was also taken out in Zaporizhia, near the region of Priyazovska.

06:31And according to Euromiden press, plenty more fuel and supply convoys were taken out, both inside

06:36Crimea and across four occupied oblasts. Oh, and Ukraine also took out drones in Crimea, as well

06:42as a drone pilot training center in Devletseva. Everything Ukraine targets is getting hit, and bit

06:49by bit, Putin's grip on Crimea is being loosened. Let's come back to Kerch, as taking out an air defense

06:55system in that region was far from the only thing that Ukraine pulled off in its massive series of

06:59strikes. The Kyiv Post reports that Ukraine also struck an oil depot at the Kerch seaport.

07:04That was a repeat strike. The depot was already burning following a strike carried out on June 21st,

07:10so Ukraine double tapped to keep the fires raging. Ukraine also hit the Test Terminal Oil Product

07:16Transshipment and Storage Complex, which Russia relies on as a logistics hub that enables it to transfer

07:22liquefied natural gas and oil products into the occupied territories, including Crimea.

07:28Footage of these strikes has been made public by the Supernova Plus telegram channel, so Russia

07:33can't deny a thing. There was also the thermal power plant strike we mentioned earlier, which took

07:38out at least one fuel storage tank, creating a plume of smoke that stretched almost 50 kilometers,

07:43as the Crimean Wind telegram channel reports.

07:46The Kyiv Post adds that fires were reported at the entrance to Kerch, which is where Russia

07:51stations S-300 and S-400 air defenses, as well as they use Naya Railway Station, which is also in

07:57the

07:57city. If Kerch sounds familiar, it's because the region is also the site of the famous Kerch Bridge,

08:03which allows Russia to transport troops and supplies from the mainland into occupied Crimea.

08:08Traffic on that bridge have been stopped by 7 a.m. on the day of Ukraine's mass strikes.

08:12How about a little more? Ukraine also hit a Nassos-Naya-2 electrical substation in the

08:18Sovetsky district in Crimea. That's been confirmed by NASA's FIRMS satellites locating a fire at the

08:24site, along with eyewitness reports of powerful explosions that began around 2 a.m., the Kyiv

08:29Post reports. That strike also caused power outages, so that's a little more darkness to add to what

08:35happened on June 24. Ukraine's drones also caused a fire at the Arabat Spit. You might think that we're

08:41done with the strikes. Russia would have certainly hoped that that was the case on June 23rd and 24th,

08:47but there's more. Before we dig into everything else that Ukraine did, take a breather for a second

08:51and subscribe to the military show. If this is the kind of insight into the Ukraine war that you want

08:56to see, we publish videos like this every single day. So, you ready for more? On June 23rd, the Special

09:04Operations Forces, or SSO, of Ukraine took to the thread's social media platform to make a big

09:11announcement. Sorry, but we have an official and urgent matter here. The railway bridge over the

09:16North Crimean Canal in Crimea no longer exists, the SSO said, with more than a tinge of sarcasm.

09:22It then teased, showing exactly what happened, and it delivered on that promise with a video of the

09:27strike that shows that Ukraine's drones have absolutely devastated the bridge. Over and over,

09:32we see the view from incoming drones as they strike targets on the bridge.

09:36By the end of the attack, one of the bridge's spans had completely collapsed. A railway track

09:41that Russia relies on to move supplies into Crimea was destroyed, and once all of this had been

09:45confirmed by operatives on the ground, Ukraine also took aim at repair equipment, in addition to

09:50striking the remains of the bridge once more, to ensure that Russia wouldn't be able to do a quick

09:55repair job to bring it back online. More details are shared by the Kyiv Post. It says that the bridge

10:00in question was near the village of Rosdolna, and that the attack took place on June 22nd,

10:06even though it was reported a day later. So we have a trio of consecutive days of devastating

10:11strikes that are all aimed at hurting the Crimean occupiers. Indeed, that's exactly what this strike

10:16did. The shattered bridge and rail line were part of the military logistical network that Russia relies

10:21on to shuttle supplies, troops, equipment, and fuel through Crimea, and often onto southern Ukraine.

10:26By the way, did we say a trio of days? Make that nearly a week of strikes. This very same

10:31bridge

10:31had also been hit in the days before the June 22nd bridge strike, along with other Ukrainian attacks

10:37targeting crossings that link Crimea to the Ukrainian mainland. And while we're on the subject of Ukrainian

10:42strikes over the past week, we may as well report on a few others, not all of which affect Crimea.

10:46June 20th saw Ukraine hit the Tiumin oil refinery, which is about 2,000 kilometers away from the

10:53Ukrainian border with Russia. We've also seen repeated attacks on Port Kavkaz since June 21st,

10:59which is in Russian territory but regularly hosts ferries that transport supplies to Crimea's

11:04western coast. A fire was reported at the port, and several of the ferries that Russia has been using

11:08as makeshift logistical ships were hit. Phew. We've seen Ukraine pull off large strikes before,

11:15but nothing like this. In the space of a few days, Ukraine has massively escalated its strategy to

11:20cut Crimea off from the occupiers on the Ukrainian mainland, as well as supplies transported from

11:25inside Russia. Air defenses have been shattered, oil depots are burning, entire logistical arteries

11:31have been bled dry. And as we create this video, the power is still out in large parts of Crimea,

11:37and there seems to be no end in sight for the rolling blackouts that have been instituted on the

11:42peninsula. Ukraine just gave Crimea its darkest day as the crescendo of a brutal series of attacks

11:47that serve to cripple the peninsula. And right now the Russian occupation of Crimea is in absolutely

11:53terrible shape. The commander of Ukraine's unmanned systems forces, Robert Brovdy, has already delivered

11:58a warning to the Crimean occupiers in the wake of all these attacks. Moscow will go down in Crimea,

12:04the SBS birds will keep doing their part, Brovdy roared in a telegram post on June 23rd.

12:10And that was before the power was cut in Sevastopol, but the Russians in Crimea know that he's serious.

12:16Frankly, they must be wondering how it could get any worse from here. They're already dealing with

12:20blackouts and the almost daily appearance of yet more Ukrainian drones in their skies.

12:24And on top of all of that, Ukraine's isolation strategy is starving the peninsula off from everything

12:30else. Take fuel, for example. Ukraine isn't hitting oil depots and fuel trucks for no reason.

12:37Every time Russian oil burns, Crimea is plunged deeper into a fuel crisis that has already swept

12:43the peninsula. At around the same time that Ukraine was engaged in its flurry of strikes,

12:47the Crimean authorities imposed sweeping fuel sale bans to civilians, as the dwindling supply of fuel on

12:53the peninsula is being reserved for emergency services and the Russian military. The Russian-installed

12:59leader of Crimea, Sergei Axionov, instituted the ban on fuel sales first in Sevastopol and then in the

13:05rest of Crimea. There is still fuel reaching the peninsula. As one frustrated motorist told the BBC,

13:11there's petrol at the filling station, but they're not selling it. Apparently it was delivered during

13:15the night, and during the day they were supposed to start selling it as usual, but after Axionov's decree,

13:20they shut everything down. But what this tells us is that there is not enough fuel coming into Crimea.

13:25It's now being rationed. And the average person on the peninsula is the one losing out. Any work

13:32that involves driving has become practically impossible, and what is supposed to be one of

13:36the most attractive vacation destinations for Russians on the mainland has been turned into a

13:40no-go zone. Tour bookings have already fallen by 58% over the two weeks up to June 22nd, the

13:47New Voice of

13:47Ukraine reports, and it's only going to get worse for one of Crimea's chief sources of income.

13:52Rail and transport disruption has also racked the peninsula, the Kyiv Post reports. The peninsula's

13:58main rail operator, Grand Service Express, has already announced that all of Tavria trains that

14:03leave Crimea would now only originate from Kerch, with all arriving trains terminating there.

14:09Anybody who wants to go deeper into the peninsula has to catch a bus. Public transport tours have been

14:14shortened and shopping centers have restricted their opening hours. Not that visiting a supermarket does much

14:19good. On June 9th, TVP World reported that Ukrainian authorities are reporting food shortages as Ukraine's

14:26attacks on logistics serving Crimea take their toll. We also can't help but wonder how long the trains will

14:31be running in Kerch, now that Ukraine has made it clear that it's going to hit that region hard and

14:36repeatedly. There are also stranger signs that Ukraine's isolation strategy for Crimea is working.

14:42For instance, Axionov has announced that all children's camps will be suspended until at

14:47least September 1st, reportedly due to fear of Ukrainian strikes. But Ukraine doesn't target

14:52civilians. The real reason for the suspension is that the fuel crisis spreading throughout Crimea

14:57has turned the buses that transport kids to these camps into luxuries that Crimea can no

15:02longer afford. Crimea has also instituted a nighttime ban on motorcycles, mopeds, scooters,

15:08pit bikes, ATVs, and similar vehicles. Again, that's supposed to somehow ensure public safety as

15:14the noise the bikes makes interferes with the work of air defense teams that are trying to tackle

15:18Ukraine's never-ending swarms of drones. And here's the craziest sign of Ukraine's success in Crimea.

15:24Air raid sirens have been suspended. Occupiers now receive text alerts and emergency notifications

15:30when the drones come, which isn't a great strategy when rolling blackouts are making phone charging

15:35difficult. Oleg Kryuchkov, who is the advisor to Axionov, says that using air raid sirens would

15:41create a madhouse on the peninsula. Why? Because they will be sounding for 22 hours per day,

15:46including seven or eight times at night, making it impossible for the occupiers to live what remains

15:50of the lives they've tried to build on the peninsula. It comes to something when Ukraine's drone attacks

15:55are so constant and successful that they've created a situation where air raid sirens are no longer used

16:01because they'd be blaring at all hours of the day. The Ukrainian noose is tightening around

16:06the Crimean neck. What we're seeing here is a blockade like no other. Surrounding territory to

16:12prevent supplies from getting in or out is hardly a new strategy. It's been used by militaries for

16:17millennia, but the way that Ukraine is doing it has never been done before. Drones in their thousands

16:22are crippling Crimean logistics and leaving the peninsula a sitting duck for strikes that Ukraine

16:27now appears to be able to carry out at will. Ukraine set up all of this by methodically

16:32weakening Crimea's air defenses throughout 2025 as it developed the middle-strike drone technology

16:38that enables the strikes that are now targeting Russia's logistical arteries that serve Crimea.

16:42We're now seeing the culmination of all that hard work. On June 24th, Ukraine gave occupied Crimea

16:48the darkest day in its 12-year history. In the days leading up to that, it gave Crimea the

16:53fieriest days it's ever experienced. But as Brovdi says, much more is coming. The dark days are going

16:59to become pitch black as Ukraine's drones fill the skies. And the light will only come back to Crimea

17:05when Ukraine's job is done, and the isolation strategy results in occupiers abandoning Crimea

17:11in droves. Putin's Crimea is over. And there is nothing he can do to stop it. What was once Putin's

17:18prized conquest is now being turned into such a strategic liability that it won't be long before

17:23Russia has to admit that keeping hold of Crimea is more trouble than it's worth. Ukraine's strategy

17:28is genius. Devastating. And you can learn a lot more about it if you watch our deep dive into how

17:34Ukraine is isolating the peninsula and setting up for the de-Russification to come. And if you enjoyed

17:39this video, remember to subscribe to The Military Show as we track Ukraine's strikes on Crimea

17:44and the Occupied Territories. And thank you for watching.

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