Satellite images reveal Crimea’s deepening energy crisis and risk of full-scale humanitarian disaster as Ukrainian strikes hit the peninsula’s power grid

Ukraine's three-month campaign to cut off Crimea's power is now visible from space. Strikes have progressively targeted the peninsula's infrastructure—fuel supplies first, then the power grid. By late June, satellite imagery showed nighttime illumination had fallen to just one-fifth of normal levels. A strike on the Balaklava thermal power plant—which provided up to one-third of Crimea's power generation—has pushed the situation toward humanitarian catastrophe. According to Meduza, rolling blackouts are now widespread; some residents have gone days without electricity, disrupting water, sewage, and mobile networks.

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