The Guardian: Ukraine's Strikes On Crimea Are Sending The Peninsula Back To The "Stone Age"
- 21.07.2026, 21:03
Residents of the peninsula are disappointed with both the “authorities” installed by Russia and the Kremlin.
As Ukrainian drones and missiles struck Crimea throughout the spring and into the summer, Russian tourists began canceling their reservations at guesthouses. Then a gasoline shortage set in, making it more difficult to supply the establishments with food and other essentials. Now, electricity and water supplies in the peninsula’s towns and villages are cut off for most of the day.
Crimean residents told The Guardian that they are disappointed in both the Russian-installed authorities and the Kremlin, which had promised to protect the peninsula.
“For 12 years, we were told that Crimea was 100% protected. And then, in literally just one month, we were thrown back to the Stone Age—no electricity, no water, no fuel,” a local resident named Marina complained to reporters.
The publication noted that since the beginning of this year, Ukraine has launched the largest sustained air operation in history against Crimea, targeting both the peninsula itself and the land and sea transport routes connecting it to Russia. Residents are now facing the most severe disruptions to their daily lives since the peninsula’s annexation in 2014.
According to the publication, more than 70% of Crimea’s approximately 2.5 million residents have experienced some form of power outage, and many of them have been without electricity and water for several days in a row.
“We’re just surviving, not living,” one resident told reporters.
A Crimean native named Alexei, who supported Russia’s annexation of the peninsula, complained to reporters that his restaurant had been largely empty this summer due to the lack of tourists, and that shortages of goods and disruptions to transportation routes made it difficult to obtain fresh produce.
“The authorities constantly insisted that Crimea was prepared for anything. Literally anything. It turned out that the authorities failed to prepare for the worst. People are scrambling for fuel as if it were ‘The Hunger Games,’” he said.
The publication added that local residents asked journalists not to reveal their names for safety reasons. The journalists noted that Crimea is home to one of Russia’s most pervasive and repressive security apparatuses, which is why many people are afraid to speak out openly.
However, the comments sections under posts by Russian officials on social media are flooded with pleas for help from people in Crimea who say they cannot contact their relatives, buy food, or cope with the prolonged power outages. In one comment, a local resident complained that Belogorsk had been without electricity for more than 70 hours.
Crimean residents told reporters that in local Telegram chat rooms, people are exchanging tips on where fuel has just been delivered, set alarms for nightly ticket distributions, share maps showing the shortest lines, and inform each other which areas still have electricity or water service.
The publication noted that in 2022, Crimea served as the main launching point for the invasion of southern Ukraine, where Russian troops advanced much faster than during the failed offensive on Kyiv. Since the full-scale invasion began, its military infrastructure has been used to launch airstrikes and support combat operations.
Moreover, the annexation of Crimea led to a sharp rise in the approval rating of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. For many years, the annual celebrations of Crimea’s “return” have served as carefully staged demonstrations of Russia’s “military might” and “national revival.”
Rob Lee, a military analyst and senior research fellow at the Institute for Foreign Policy Research, stated that by striking Crimea, Ukraine hopes to strengthen its position in any future peace negotiations. According to him, Ukraine now has more leverage in future negotiations than before, because it can now strike virtually any target in Crimea.
Ukraine has focused its strikes on the main transportation routes supplying Crimea, in particular the “Novorossiya” highway — a key logistics corridor connecting the peninsula with Russia’s Rostov Oblast via the occupied cities of Melitopol and Mariupol.