Drones strike historic museum in Russia-annexed Crimea as officials adjust train timetable

Ukrainian drones hit a historic museum in the Russian-annexed Crimea’s Sevastopol, local authorities claimed Wednesday, as air strikes intensify and they cut back on night trains.

The museum is dedicated to the Crimean War (1853-1856) between the Russian Empire and an alliance which included the Ottoman Empire. In that conflict Russia was defeated.

Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Russian-installed governor of Sevastopol, stated on Telegram the museum roof was on fire. He did not provide further specifics on damage or whether there were any casualties.The adversary will pay for this outrage! Razvozhayev wrote in a message early Wednesday.

Elsewhere in Crimea, officials reduced down train timetables for night hours, the peninsula’s Russian-installed ruler Sergei Aksyonov announced on Telegram, after a drone assault this week injured a train driver and killed his assistant.

Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula seized by Russia from Ukraine in 2014, is running out of fuel after recent Ukrainian drone strikes just as the holiday season is getting underway.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy last week offered face-to-face meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin which he declined. Kremlin officials said Ukraine was sabotaging efforts to find a peaceful conclusion to the crisis following the train disaster.

In a separate development, the city of Novokuibyshevsk in Russia’s Samara area, a major oil hub on the Volga river with many refineries managed by state-controlled oil giant Rosneft, was fighting off drone strikes, the regional governor said.

Authorities in the city of Samara, with a population of one million, ordered inhabitants to shelter and suspended public transport amid air raid alerts, local media reported.

Ongoing strikes by ​Ukraine on Russian energy infrastructure have pushed Moscow to decrease oil output, the world’s third-largest.