Hundreds of charred and charred wrecks of tractor trailers, cargo trucks, and various military transport vehicles line the shoulders of Russia’s main supply route to Crimea and land in southern Ukraine from Russia. Mile after mile of car wrecks have been overturned and burned in roadside ditches, shipments of supplies that never reached their destination. This 390-mile stretch—a direct route from Russia’s supply hub of Rostov-on-Don to the Black Sea region—has earned the designation of the “Highway of Death,” bestowed upon it by Ukrainian and Russian troops.
Since early April, wave after wave of Ukrainian drones have crippled a key coastal route along the Sea of Azov and taken Crimea’s northern bridges across the Chongar Strait. Ukraine’s offensive has choked sea supply routes and disrupted rail services, leaving the only practical route to Crimea, the Kerch bridge, in eastern Crimea. It is beaten, too, and now handles part of the original traffic—most of which comes from the Crimea. At the end of June each day saw miles of vehicles backed up on the Kerch Bridge trying to leave Crimea.
Hundreds of charred and charred wrecks of tractor trailers, cargo trucks, and various military transport vehicles line the shoulders of Russia’s main supply route to Crimea and land in southern Ukraine from Russia. Mile after mile of car wrecks have been overturned and burned in roadside ditches, shipments of supplies that never reached their destination. This 390-mile stretch—a direct route from Russia’s supply hub of Rostov-on-Don to the Black Sea region—has earned the designation of the “Highway of Death,” bestowed upon it by Ukrainian and Russian troops.
Since early April, wave after wave of Ukrainian drones have crippled a key coastal route along the Sea of Azov and taken Crimea’s northern bridges across the Chongar Strait. Ukraine’s offensive has choked sea supply routes and disrupted rail services, leaving the only practical route to Crimea, the Kerch bridge, in eastern Crimea. It is beaten, too, and now handles part of the original traffic—most of which comes from the Crimea. At the end of June each day saw miles of vehicles backed up on the Kerch Bridge trying to leave Crimea.
This crackdown on Crimea has more ramifications for Russian tourists traveling to the peninsula for summer vacations. Ukraine has caused a severe shortage of fuel and ammunition in the Russian-occupied areas in the south near Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. On June 11in one strike, Ukraine’s 1st Detached Assault Force destroyed ammunition and fuel moving toward Zaporizhzhia—including up to 50 military vehicles, loaded and ready to roll. The invasion of Crimea therefore severely hampers Russia’s ability to conduct military operations in its southern theaters.
Ukraine’s attacks on Russian oil refineries across the country have exacerbated the conflict by reducing Russia’s refining capacity by almost a quarter and cause shortage of product distribution throughout the country. For several days now, blackouts have crippled Sevastopol, Crimea’s largest city. On June 21, the governor of Russian-occupied Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov, suspension the sale of gasoline to citizens and announced that only government and government agencies would receive fuel.
“Ukraine stopping the supply of oil to the south,” explained Serhii Kuzan, head of the Center for Security and Cooperation of Ukraine, a Ukrainian think tank, “cripples Russia’s military order and isolates Russian forces. There is already a shortage of oil in the temporarily occupied territories. and arms supply.”
In May, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine announced that the strategy “Logistics lockdown“It would turn Crimea from a peninsula into an island isolated from the Russian mainland. The goal of a systematic, multi-pronged campaign is to suppress every supply route that feeds Russian forces in the occupied southern part of Ukraine. Crimea is an important supply hub and rear camp for the entire southern region. All Russian forces in the Zaporizhia region and the land route receive equipment from Kzherson and Khzhissia or the continuous Kzhersona route. Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said that Ukraine wants to cut off the peninsula from Russian supply while destroying critical infrastructure, with the aim of carrying out an invasion of Russia”to wither on the vine.”
This will enable Ukraine to continue to attack and regain its territory. So far, however, this has not happened, although Russia’s much-hyped summer offensive has gone nowhere.
“Ukraine is creating a battlefield,” explained George Barros of the US-based Institute for the Study of War. “They’re making the Russian front lines hard. They might leave the Russians in this vulnerable situation for a while, maybe months, and then attack.”
The weapons causing most of this damage are medium-range aircraft—cheap, domestically produced, and capable of hitting targets about 200 miles from the front. New Ukrainian-designed models include the FP-2 and Behemoth, the latter with a top speed of 110 miles per hour and a 154-pound warhead capacity, according to CNN. Their range extends Russia’s supply lines by forcing military equipment to bypass cost-effective routes within the strike zone. So Russia is forced to pass convoys through roundabout routes, especially from the north.
“This drone campaign did not emerge overnight,” said Maksym Beznosiuk, Polish associate at the GLOBSEC think tank. “Ukraine’s systematic efforts to degrade Russian air defenses in Crimea earlier this year, including radar systems and batteries of surface-to-air missiles, enable deeper drone attacks. This has also reduced Russia’s ability to protect military bases in the Crimean Peninsula and created new opportunities for follow-on strikes against shipping targets.”
Also, by “boring Crimea,” Kuzan said, Ukraine is exacerbating “already public discontent in occupied Crimea.” The strike at the Simferopol power station and the Sevastopol substation has been activated June 24 reducing power in large parts of Crimea. The peninsula declared a state of emergency due to power outages, fuel rationing and travel restrictions. The water outage has relieved water pressure in parts of the city, too, and elsewhere on the peninsula.
This consolidates more Russian resources in Crimea. Ukraine “to change the focus and power of Russia,” Kuzan said. “We know that large forces of FSB (Russia’s internal security) personnel are in Crimea, probably to deal with the popular opposition. There are more soldiers, too, for example, in charge of small air defense systems that have been directed from Russia and the front line to secure highways.
The blockade is not total, and Ukraine does not want it to be, Barros said. “There are still ways to enter and leave Crimea, and it is possible that it is being done by design,” he said. “If you completely trap someone and block all avenues of retreat, then it changes the calculus for the enemy. In general, you’ll want to leave a path so the enemy has an incentive to leave instead of digging in their heels and fighting to the end.”
Crimea is an invaluable geostrategic asset for Russia for more than one reason. Russia boasts that the peninsula is an “unsinkable aircraft carrier,” acting as a platform to deploy air and naval power throughout the Black Sea region, including the Kerch Strait, which connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov. Sevastopol is Russia’s main Black Sea shipping port, which Moscow has used to stifle Ukraine’s grain exports and trade. And Russia regularly launches missile attacks from the peninsula on Mykolaiv and Odesa, the latter just 200 miles away.
By threatening this Russian stronghold, Ukraine is sending a message to the Russian people that President Vladmir Putin’s invasion of the peninsula has not brought the security he promised in 2014.
