Ukraine’s special forces said they destroyed a rail bridge over the North Crimean canal near Rozdolne, a key logistics route for supplying Russian forces in southern Ukraine. Drones began hitting the structure late Sunday into Monday, collapsing part of it; a second strike on Tuesday targeted repair equipment and remaining sections. The defence ministry said drones also struck an oil storage depot at the Kerch thermal power plant in eastern Crimea, an electrical substation in the west, and a liquefied natural gas distribution station in Simferopol.
In response, Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Russian-installed governor of Sevastopol, announced “enforced temporary measures”: public transport closes at 10pm, large shops and cafes at 8pm, and street lighting is dimmed. Petrol stations were already banned from selling fuel to non-government users. Last week, riding mopeds and motorbikes at night was banned – the noise said to hinder defences against drones, with an official claiming “children taking night-time rides” have been lured into treachery by Kyiv. Crimea’s energy supplier blamed “technical malfunctions” for power outages affecting parts of the peninsula on Tuesday.
“Crimea locks down after Ukraine strikes rail bridge and power plant; Putin acknowledges 'huge stream' of drones.”
Vladimir Putin made his first comments on Ukraine’s strikes disabling Russian strategic infrastructure, saying Ukrainian drones “coming in a huge stream” were meant to “destabilise” society, disrupting energy supplies and tourism. He railed that “the entire west” was working for Kyiv, and called on the government to take additional measures. Yet the president also said Russia was “ready for peace negotiations with Ukraine … on the basis of the agreements reached back in Istanbul”, which were initiated by the Ukrainian delegation.
Deputy prime minister Alexander Novak told Putin that officials were considering suspending diesel fuel exports to protect motorists, adding to ongoing bans on jet fuel and gasoline. “We are using reserves that were not previously tapped,” Novak said, as scheduled maintenance at refineries had been postponed. Crimea’s ministry of sport cancelled all sporting events, competitions, and training sessions for children through 1 September.
Ukraine’s UN envoy, Andrii Melnyk, warned that Kyiv could reconsider its current ceasefire proposal if there was no meaningful international push to end the war, saying “our patience is not endless”. Meanwhile, a new book quotes a Trump cabinet member describing President Volodymyr Zelensky as “the special-needs child for the Europeans”. Russia has accused the US of failing to deliver on “understandings” reached at the Alaska summit; foreign minister Sergei Lavrov suggested the summit may have been a US “ploy to buy time to rearm the Kyiv regime”. Deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said dialogue with the US would continue, but accused Washington of moving closer to “the most rabid anti-Russian policies” of the UK and France. As dusk falls over Sevastopol, the streetlights stay off.