Russia limits travel and tightens security while a Ukrainian drone attack damages a historic museum in Crimea
A Ukrainian drone strike hurts an important historic museum in Crimea, and Russia is limiting transportation and tightening security in the areas impacted.
A group of countries, including the Ottoman Empire, fought the Crimean War from 1853 to 1856. The attack damaged a museum that celebrates that war. In the end, Russia lost that war.
As the Russians took over Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev spoke out strongly against the attack, saying in an early morning statement that “the enemy will pay for this act of desecration.”
Crimean officials announced the cancellation of overnight train services in a separate event. Sergei Aksyonov, who was recently named as governor of the peninsula by Russia, said that the change was made because of a recent wave of drone activity, which included an earlier incident in which a train driver was hurt and his assistant was killed.
Crimea, which Russia took from Ukraine in 2014, has also been having trouble getting fuel because of repeated drone attacks on energy infrastructure, which is happening just as the busy holiday season is starting.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, recently said again that he was ready to have direct talks with Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia. Moscow has turned down this offer. After the most recent attack on a rail line, the Kremlin said that Kyiv was hurting attempts to reach a peaceful agreement.
In other parts of Russia, drone action was seen in Novokuibyshevsk, which is in the Samara region and is a major oil processing hub on the Volga River. It is home to several Rosneft-run refineries. Regional leaders reported the use of air defenses due to the drone threat to the city.
Local news sources say that during air raid alerts, authorities in the city of about one million people told people to stay inside while public transportation was temporarily shut down.
Reports say that ongoing attacks on Russian energy sites have put a strain on Moscow’s oil production. Russia is one of the world’s biggest oil producers.
In the central Vladimir region, two factories caught fire, and in the Rostov region near the Ukrainian border, pieces of a downed drone started a fire at a fuel storage site. Regional leaders reported these incidents on Telegram.
Unusual alerts were also sent out in Khanty-Mansiysk, Perm, Tyumen, Chelyabinsk, and Sverdlovsk in the Ural Mountains, which are all far away industrial and oil-producing areas. The evidence shows that drone activity is spreading to more places.
The defense ministry of Russia reported the interception of 326 Ukrainian drones overnight. More than a dozen of them were said to be going toward Moscow, and the mayor of the city confirmed that air defense operations were happening.
