War

1581st day. The Ukrainian Armed Forces stated that they destroyed one of the three bridges connecting Crimea to the mainland. There are power outages and no gasoline on the peninsula. Ukraine promises to intensify strikes

Since February 24, 2022, Meduza has been broadcasting live about the Russian-Ukrainian war. We publish your letters every day because we are sure that we need to continue talking about the war. Share with us your thoughts about the war. What feelings are you experiencing? How does war affect your life and your attitude towards the world? If you have a story related to the war, tell it . The feedback form is at the end of this article. A review of the previous day can be read here .

The Ukrainian military said that they had completely destroyed the railway bridge across the North Crimean Canal, connecting Crimea with the Russian-controlled part of the Kherson region.

Ukrainian special operations forces published a video of the attack. There is no independent confirmation of the destruction of the bridge; representatives of the Russian Federation have not commented on the Ukrainian statements. The destroyed bridge is one of three railway bridges connecting Crimea with the mainland - along with Krymsky and Chongarsky.

Tonight, the Ukrainian Armed Forces also carried out a massive drone strike. The thermal power plant in Kerch was among the targets of the attack: a strong fire occurred at the station, the smoke from which spread for tens of kilometers.

Due to the fire, power outages began on the peninsula - Evpatoria, Saki, Dzhankoy, Krasnoperekopsk were completely left without electricity. The authorities of the peninsula, appointed by the Russian Federation, called the reason for the shutdown “technological disruptions in electrical networks.” In some areas of Crimea, electricity has been supplied only a few hours a day according to schedule since Sunday - then the Ukrainian Armed Forces also attacked the energy supply system in the region.

The situation in Crimea for its residents began to deteriorate sharply in recent weeks, when Ukraine stepped up drone strikes on the “near rear” - an area several tens of kilometers from the front line. In this zone there are routes that connect the peninsula with Russia through the occupied territories of the Kherson and Donetsk regions. The drones also attack trucks delivering goods to the peninsula - primarily gasoline.

For several weeks, fuel in Crimea was sold using coupons, and from June 21, the sale of gasoline at gas stations was completely stopped - now only government services can purchase it.

Today, the Crimean authorities announced that they allow up to 200 liters of fuel per passenger car to be imported across the Crimean Bridge. Previously, the maximum norm was 100 liters - restrictions were introduced due to fears of attacks by the Ukrainian Armed Forces on vehicles, which could lead to explosions and damage to the bridge.

Russian authorities are also trying to shift responsibility for the availability of fuel for tourists coming to the region to hoteliers. As Fontanka writes , citing Georgy Mokhov, vice-president of the Russian Union of Tourism Industry, hotels in Feodosia, Yevpatoria and Yalta were ordered to inform new guests about the need to have a supply of fuel in cans and to provide conditions for its safe storage.

The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, in turn, said yesterday that they were “closing the beach season in Crimea,” recalling that just in recent days an oil depot, gas compressor stations, radar stations and air defense systems were attacked on the peninsula. “The forecast for tourists is unfavorable,” the Ukrainian military department said .

Ukraine's military leadership promises to intensify attacks. “We will increase the number of our pilots at operational depth and destroy enemy logistics much more actively. […] We will cut off the enemy’s logistics so that it will be very difficult for them,” said the commander of the National Guard, Alexander Pivnenko.

Amid the worsening situation in Crimea, Ukraine's permanent representative to the UN, Andriy Melnik, made it clear that Ukraine may reconsider its approach to ending hostilities. He called on the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution on the need for an early ceasefire along the front line, pointing out that Ukraine is already considering this as a compromise on its part - and in the near future it is ready to “modify its approaches.”

“You will never be able to hold on to the occupied lands. Never. Get out of Ukraine as quickly as possible,” he said, addressing Russia.

War in photographs. Druzhkovka

Druzhkovka is a city in the Kramatorsk agglomeration, where more than 50 thousand people lived before the war. The city is located less than 15 kilometers from the front line and is constantly subject to artillery shelling and drone strikes.

As of April 2026, six thousand residents remained in the city. Now, as the Russian army approaches the city’s borders, they too are evacuating.

War through the eyes of Meduza readers

How we choose letters

Meduza's readers live in different countries and have different attitudes towards the war. We publish your letters to see this event through your eyes. Our editors try to present all points of view, even if they do not coincide with the editorial position. However, in accordance with the Meduza code, we do not publish messages that contain “hate speech,” justify the murder of civilians, or express direct support for an aggressive war.

This letter contains obscenities.

Anonymous reader (Balahna, Nizhny Novgorod region) . If you describe in one word everything that happens after one thousand five hundred-odd days of a full-scale war, then only one thing comes to mind: fucked up.

I'm tired of seeing the horrors of war. It seemed that in four years one could get used to photographs of destruction, casualties, shelling... But no: every time it was like a knife to the heart. I remember well the stories of my grandmother, who as a child survived the German occupation in Belarus; you can’t help but compare her words with how people live on the front line now.

It’s sick of seeing every week in city public pages and on websites how another “cargo” was brought from the war. Our town is small; about 15 people I knew personally have already been buried. And every time - the same picture: a plastic broom, the dry words of the military commissar that “another hero has died,” and relatives howling like a beluga.

Fucked up by silence. In smoking rooms and in personal interactions, everyone says how tired they are of the war, that there was no point in bothering at all, and the like. But they say it in a low voice, because you have to pretend that life goes on as usual.

I'm tired of living on a powder keg. My house is 100 meters from the entrance of a defense plant, every message about a UAV raid or another arrival in the region makes me shudder. For a year now I’ve always kept all my documents with me in my bag, and I’m not the only one.

Fucked up with hypocrisy. The “anti-war” opposition, which has unanimously fled the country, works only for its own interests. They do whatever they want: they work off grants, fight with each other and go to each other in circles for interviews, write crap on the Internet, create moronic banners with hangers, hold rallies where possible... But they just don’t protect the interests of those who remain in Russia. Here we are left alone with our misfortune; the feeling is growing that Russians at home and in exile are two different worlds. All the more valuable are people who are really busy with business, I bow to you.

When perestroika happened and we opened up to the world, I had a feeling: now we feel bad, but this is temporary, tension has subsided, we have stopped being afraid of the third world war (which we were afraid of all through school) and there is only a bright future ahead. And I certainly didn’t think that in my old age these fears would return to me again. And how fucked up it all is.

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