ASTRA: Critical Russia–Crimea energy link hit by drone assault

A key substation on Russia’s power bridge to Crimea was attacked by drones in the Temryuksky District of Krasnodar Krai, ASTRA sources report.

On February 27, at around 2 a.m., 13 drones struck the 500 kV Taman substation, operated by Rosseti Kuban PJSC, causing a fire and partially disabling the facility. Autotransformers AT 1 and AT 2 were destroyed, though no casualties were reported.

The Taman substation (500/220 kV) is a major transmission hub within Russia’s Unified Energy System and serves as one of the critical nodes of the power bridge across the Kerch Strait, transmitting electricity to annexed Crimea. Russian media reported in 2018 that all four lines of the Crimea power bridge run through this substation.

Local authorities had not officially commented on the attack.

On March 1, advisor to the head of the administration of the annexed region Oleg Kryuchkov, stated that a failure in the main power lines had caused outages in some areas of Crimea, with restoration efforts underway.

“An accident occurred on the main electricity networks. Electricity supply in several settlements of Crimea is limited. Restoration work is ongoing,” Kryuchkov wrote.

It remains unclear whether the recent power outages are connected to the drone attack.

By Vafa Guliyeva