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Ukraine’s ongoing military operation targeting occupied Crimea has disrupted Russian logistics and established operational control over key elements of the peninsula’s fuel and energy infrastructure, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said.
According to UATV English, citing the president’s Telegram channel, Zelenskyy outlined the objectives and results of the campaign in an interview with the Financial Times.
“Some time ago, we launched the Crimea operation. It includes deep strikes and medium-range strikes. We were slowing down the militarization of our peninsula occupied by Russia: military bases, depots, air defense systems, all the sites from which aircraft take off, from which missile strikes against us are launched, and logistics,” Zelenskyy said.
According to the president, Ukrainian forces have succeeded in disrupting Russian supply routes while degrading critical infrastructure supporting military operations on the peninsula.
“We cut off logistics and brought the fuel and energy sector under control. We showed what it means to operationally control the skies at a specific point, at a specific time,” he said.
Zelenskyy noted that the Crimea campaign was preceded by strikes against Russian military and economic infrastructure elsewhere, including the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk and facilities linked to Russia’s energy exports.
“The very places where they make money from energy, which they then spend on military bases and their military production,” he said.
According to the president, the sustained campaign is having an impact beyond the battlefield.
“Russian business began to understand that they will not win the war. They are losing both time and money and, frankly, they will lose hope, because many of them had hoped to capture us,” Zelenskyy said.
Earlier, Ukrainian strikes reportedly triggered a fire at an oil and gas terminal in Kerch in temporarily occupied Crimea. Power outages were also reported in Sevastopol, Simferopol, Yalta, Bakhchisarai, and the Rozdolne district following attacks on energy infrastructure.
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