Crimea residents panic as Ukrainian strikes intensify

After queueing nearly seven hours at a gas station near the capital Simferopol, Dilyaver, a 52-year-old Crimean Tatar, managed to buy 20 liters of gasoline for $22. But he doesn't know when he'll fill up again as shortages are forecast to worsen.

“There were teenagers running around selling gasoline for 300 rubles ($4.2), almost beaten by angry men in the line,” he told Al Jazeera on Saturday, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of arrest if he talked to foreign media.

Judging by license plates and accents, some in the line were Russian tourists who cut short their holidays to flee across the 19-km (12-mile) bridge that cost $4 billion. “The tourist season is ruined, that's bad news for most people here,” Dilyaver said, referring to the millions of annual visitors who sustain many on the arid peninsula whose farming has suffered since Kyiv blocked a vital waterway.

But the fuel problem is only the tip of the iceberg for Crimea. “The main problem in Crimea is not the lack of fuel,” said Nikolay Mitrokhin, a researcher at the University of Bremen who analyzes the Russia-Ukraine war, told Al Jazeera. “The problem is that Ukrainian drones are starting to fly sporadically on the peninsula's internal roads.”

Since mid-May, Ukrainian drones have attacked hundreds of fuel, ammunition, and other supply trucks traveling from southwestern Russia to Crimea via the “land bridge” through occupied Ukrainian regions. The drones, operated from bunkers up to 200 km (124 miles) from the land bridge, also scatter mines weighing only 500 grams (1.1 pounds) that have magnetic or motion sensors on the roads.

Cargo ships trying to bring fuel and food to Crimea or carry steel and grain from occupied southeastern Ukraine have also come under attack. “Ukraine can regularly, daily attack military targets, infrastructure in Crimea... Ukraine has turned Crimea into an island besieged by war and fire,” said Volodymyr Fesenko, head of the Penta research institute in Kyiv.

Earlier this month, Ukraine's 3rd Special Battalion claimed its drone teams have “air control” over the strategic supply route from occupied Melitopol to the Chongar bridge in northern Crimea. “This is just the beginning! More to come!” the battalion posted on Facebook along with video of trucks exploding and burning.

The Chongar bridge, a key gateway to Crimea, was damaged by drones over a week ago and now only allows light vehicles, while buses and trucks use a nearby pontoon bridge. “The bridge is open, the damaged part is blocked, one lane works, there are no jams because there are few cars,” a driver who crossed wrote on Telegram.

Ukrainian drones have also attacked fuel depots inside Crimea, along with air defense systems, airfields, military bases, command centers, and facilities of Russia's Black Sea Fleet that relocated to Russia's Novorossiysk port after losing at least one-third of its warships.

After annexing the peninsula in 2014, Moscow spent billions militarizing Crimea, deploying frigates, diesel submarines, S-400 air defense systems, tens of thousands of troops, and building new bases. “Putin turned Crimea into a military base, and therefore made it the most vulnerable point in the war with Ukraine,” Fesenko said.

Early Monday, a Ukrainian drone struck a moving train, killing a driver and forcing Moscow to halt nine other trains. Passengers were evacuated by buses, according to Kremlin-appointed authorities.

One of Russia's most hawkish figures, Igor Girkin, a former intelligence officer who led the first Moscow-backed separatist group in southeastern Ukraine in 2014, weighed in on the panic in Crimea. “What is happening at gas stations in Crimea is a real nightmare for locals and soldiers,” Girkin wrote on Telegram on June 1 from prison. Kyiv is “acting insolently... trying to cut off the peninsula and our southern military groups from fuel supplies.”

For Crimean Tatars like Dilyaver, what is happening is part of a decades-long struggle for survival under Moscow's shadow. His family was deported in 1944 under Stalin. “We have a saying, 'If a Russian lives next to you, keep an axe ready,'” said Dilyaver's mother, Gulsum, 77. “We have endured them too much, and it's far from over.”

Ukrainian strikes have also caused food shortages. Pasta, flour, canned meat, fish, and vegetables have been swept off the shelves in some stores and supermarkets. “The Soviet mentality remains. If there is a problem, buy buckwheat,” Dilyaver joked of the cheap, nutritious grain that symbolizes resilience in the former USSR.