Ukraine Strikes Crimea, 5 Killed
Al Jazeera English
Ukrainian attacks on Crimea and Russian border regions killed five people, including a child, and forced power cuts across the peninsula. In parallel, Russia expelled Romania’s consul in St. Petersburg following diplomatic tensions over a drone incident.
At least five people were killed in Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory and the Crimean Peninsula, according to Moscow-appointed officials in Crimea. Crimea’s governor, Sergey Aksyonov, said two people, including a child, were killed and two others wounded in “enemy attacks overnight” early Thursday.
Meanwhile, in the border region of Bryansk, drone attacks killed two people, and another person was killed in Belgorod province. Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed it had shot down 269 Ukrainian drones over Russia and Crimea during the same night.
Aleksandr Kharitonov, head of the Krasnoarmeysk district in Krasnodar Krai, said debris from a drone attack sparked a fire at an oil depot. “After UAV debris fell, a fire broke out at the Poltavskaya oil depot,” he wrote on the state-run Max platform.
The Moscow-installed administration in Crimea announced power cuts across the peninsula following the strikes. “Energy infrastructure was damaged due to hostile attacks. Therefore, temporary power outages will be enforced across all of Crimea,” Aksyonov posted on Telegram.
On the Ukrainian side, officials reported that Russia struck three locomotives, killing one train driver, and hit two gas stations across Ukrainian territory on Thursday. Oleksandr Pertsovskyi, CEO of state railway operator Ukrzaliznytsia, confirmed on Facebook that the locomotives were attacked in Sumy province in the northeast and Zaporizhzhia province in the south.
With no end to hostilities in sight, both Russia and Ukraine have focused on striking fuel and transport infrastructure to disrupt each other’s supplies and gain advantages along the front lines.
Russia-Romania Tensions
Beyond the fighting, regional diplomatic strains are rising. Russia on Thursday expelled Romania’s Consul General in St. Petersburg, a move Romania’s Foreign Ministry called “foreseeable.” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said it handed Romanian envoy Cristian Istrate a note “declaring the Romanian Consul General in St. Petersburg a persona non grata.” The note also stated that “the consular office there will be closed in the near future.”
The move follows Romania’s closure of Russia’s mission in the port city of Constanta last month. Relations between the two countries have deteriorated since a Russian drone crashed into an apartment in Galati, near the Ukrainian border, last month, injuring two people. The incident drew outrage from Romania as well as its NATO and EU allies.
Also on Thursday, the French navy seized another oil tanker allegedly linked to Russia’s “shadow fleet,” part of European efforts to enforce sanctions against Moscow and curb Russia’s key revenue streams.
