Crimea Has Begun Installing Pay Phones Due To Mobile Service Outages
- 20.07.2026, 19:49
The peninsula is returning to the past.
Landline phones for calling emergency services have begun to be installed on the streets of annexed Crimea due to regular blackouts and jamming of mobile communications. According to the region’s operational headquarters, the first such phones appeared in Dzhankoy in the north of the peninsula, where mobile service is available on a schedule—twice a day for four hours.
The payphones have been placed on Kutuzov, Vostochnaya, Internatsionalnaya, Tolstoy, and Karl Marx Streets. It is claimed that they can be used to make free calls to the emergency number 112, as well as to the fire department, police, ambulance service, and gas emergency service. According to the operational headquarters, the payphones operate even in the absence of electricity and cellular service. Another such phone has been installed on Teatralnaya Square in Yevpatoria.
In recent weeks, the cities listed above, as well as Alushta, Feodosia, Kerch, Simferopol, Sudak, Armiansk, Krasnoperekopsk, Yalta, and other settlements in Crimea have regularly been left without electricity and water due to Ukrainian attacks on power substations. Sergey Aksyonov, the Russian-appointed “head” of the region, previously stated that it is currently impossible to establish precise schedules for electricity supply across the peninsula. He also reported a reduction in street lighting across all municipalities and the start of generator deliveries to settlements where blackouts had lasted more than 12 days.
In Sevastopol, the occupying authorities acknowledged that they can no longer adhere to the previous “2 out of 6” power outage schedule—under which electricity is supplied for only two hours with six-hour intervals—and have stopped providing estimates for when power will be restored. Residents were urged to follow news updates on the radio and charge their phones at designated stations.
Widespread disruptions to electricity and water supplies have persisted in Crimea since late June. On the 26th, following a series of Ukrainian strikes on substations, oil infrastructure, and logistics routes on the peninsula, a state of emergency was declared. However, attacks on the region have occurred almost daily since then. For example, on the night of July 20, drones struck seven more substations.
Earlier, the State Duma proposed reviving the payphone network in Russia due to constant mobile service outages, which the authorities attribute to the fight against drones. Igor Antropenko, a member of the Trade and Industry Committee, called this issue “a pressing one.”