UKRAINE STRIKES CRIMEA AS DRONE WAR ESCALATES

Russian-installed officials in Sevastopol said Wednesday that Ukraine attacked Russian-occupied Crimea with Storm Shadow missiles and drones, as both Russia and Ukraine reported large overnight drone barrages. Reuters reported that air-defence units in Sevastopol downed more than 20 Ukrainian drones during an early morning attack, while the city’s governor said Ukraine also used Franco-British Storm Shadow cruise missiles. Reuters said it could not independently verify the battlefield claims.

The reported attack damaged several structures, including a regional office of Russia’s central bank and an eight-storey apartment building, but no injuries were reported, according to the Russian-installed Sevastopol governor cited by Reuters. Ukraine did not immediately comment on the Sevastopol strikes. Russia also said it shot down 140 drones overnight, while Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 163 drones at Ukraine from Tuesday evening onward.

Crimea matters because it is not just another occupied territory. Russia seized and annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, a move NATO has called illegal and illegitimate, and which the alliance says it will not recognize. The United Nations General Assembly also said the March 2014 Crimea referendum had “no validity” and could not form the basis for changing the status of Crimea or Sevastopol.

Sevastopol is especially important because it has long served as the home of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. Reuters reported in 2014 that Crimea was central to Russian power projection in the Black Sea, while later Reuters reporting said Ukrainian attacks had forced Russia’s Black Sea Fleet to move many warships away from Sevastopol to other bases. That shift has been one of Ukraine’s clearest military successes in the Black Sea campaign.

Ukraine’s strategy has been to make Crimea less useful as a Russian military hub. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, Ukraine has used missiles, aerial drones, and naval drones to target ships, air-defence systems, command sites, logistics routes, and port infrastructure connected to Russia’s war effort. Ukraine’s navy chief said in 2024 that Russia had been forced to rebase nearly all combat-ready Black Sea Fleet warships from occupied Crimea because of Ukrainian attacks.

The latest strike claims also show how drone warfare is spreading beyond front-line trenches into financial, industrial, and urban infrastructure. Reuters reported Tuesday that Russia enacted a law allowing its central bank, Sberbank, and cash-collection institutions to deploy their own anti-drone defences and arm staff to counter drone attacks. The move followed an alleged Storm Shadow strike on the central bank’s Sevastopol office and suggests Russia is pushing some air-defence responsibility onto major institutions.

The drone exchange is not one-sided. Reuters reported that Russian strikes injured 15 people in Zaporizhzhia and six in Dnipropetrovsk, while Ukraine said Russia launched 163 drones at Ukraine. The pattern is now familiar: Ukraine targets Russian-occupied or Russian rear-area infrastructure, while Russia launches large drone and missile waves against Ukrainian cities, energy systems, and military targets.

For Ukraine, Crimea remains both a military target and a political symbol. Kyiv does not recognize Russia’s annexation and continues to treat the peninsula as occupied Ukrainian territory. For Russia, Crimea is tied to naval access, national identity, and the credibility of its claims over occupied land. That is why attacks on Sevastopol carry weight beyond the immediate damage.

The immediate question is whether the latest Sevastopol attack becomes another isolated strike or part of a wider Ukrainian campaign to keep pressure on Crimea’s remaining military infrastructure. Either way, the broader trend is clear: the war’s drone and missile geography keeps widening, and Crimea remains one of the most important pressure points in the conflict.

Fact-check date: 27 May 2026
Sources: Reuters, NATO, United Nations

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