Ukraine intensifies and expands drone strike campaign to isolate Crimea

Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) stated that Ukrainian forces carried out a large-scale strike operation on July 13, simultaneously striking Russian military, logistics, and fuel infrastructure in occupied Crimea and Russia.

SBU drones struck:

• Two Project 12150 Mangust-class patrol boats in the Black Sea
• Hangars housing specialized and military equipment at the Bagerovo airbase in Crimea
• Three fixed radar installations used by Russian forces to detect unmanned boats and UAVs
• The Yeysk and Maria car ferries at the Krym ferry terminal in Kerch
• The Lavrentiy and Panagia cargo and passenger ferries at the port of Kavkaz
• Three storage tanks at an oil transport facility in the port of Kavkaz
• A railway warehouse with oil tanks at the Kavkaz freight station
• A tank farm at a local oil depot in the town of Vyazniki in Russia’s Stavropol Krai

The ISW noted that Ukrainian forces are engaged in a systematic multipronged strike campaign aimed at isolating Crimea and denying Russia the ability to sustain logistics to the peninsula. The strikes are targeting bridges, major highways, and rail infrastructure from occupied Kherson Oblast to occupied Crimea; Kerch Strait crossings and ferries moving between occupied Crimea and Krasnodar Krai; and fuel tankers and vessels in the Sea of Azov.

ISW analysts emphasized that the SBU’s strikes demonstrate the enhanced planning capabilities of Ukrainian forces in their ability to simultaneously conduct such strikes against various targets in support of Ukraine’s effort to isolate the Crimean Peninsula.

The ISW report posited that should Ukrainian strikes continue, Russia’s ability to sustain logistics to the peninsula will be disrupted, which can degrade frontline Russian offensive operations and impede Russian advances in southern Ukraine.

Ukraine's pressure campaign on Crimea

The New York Times reported on July 5 that Ukraine's Defense Forces, striking one target after another, are shifting the war onto the territory of temporarily occupied Crimea in an effort to turn the peninsula into a "nightmare for the Kremlin" – a new tool of pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin aimed at forcing him to end the war.

The Kyiv Independent, citing a senior Ukrainian official, reported on June 2 that U.S. President Donald Trump had privately advised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to act "more boldly" against Russia. Zelenskyy subsequently on June 25 approved a "40-day operation to pressure Russia into ending the war”.