Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Forces claimed they struck 13 power substations in occupied Crimea and other Russian-held territory overnight while further degrading Russia's Kerch ferry crossing, with drone forces commander Robert "Madyar" Brovdi saying the operation has now reduced the crossing's transport capacity by about 75%.

Brovdi said that Ukraine’s drone operations in July so far have hit 176 Russian “shadow fleet” vessels and 96 energy infrastructure sites.

Operation "Crimean Switch Off" targets occupied energy infrastructure

In a statement on 19 July, Brovdi said Ukrainian drone units carried out overnight strikes as part of Operation "Crimean Switch Off," an ongoing campaign targeting electricity infrastructure supporting Russia's occupation authorities.

According to Brovdi, Ukrainian drones struck 13 electrical substations and energy hubs overnight, including eight in occupied Crimea and five elsewhere in Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Donetsk, and Luhansk oblasts.

He said the targets included substations in Kerch, Yalta, Sudak, Staryi Krym, Koktebel, Berdiansk, and other occupied settlements, disrupting electricity infrastructure across occupied territory.

According to Brovdi, Ukrainian drone units struck 59 targets deep behind Russian lines during the night.

Kerch ferry crossing capacity cut by 75%

In a separate statement, Brovdi said Operation "MoLoCHKa" had further degraded Russia's Kerch ferry crossing, one of the country's main logistics links between mainland Russia and occupied Crimea.

He also claimed Ukrainian drones struck four vessels supporting Russian maritime logistics in the Black Sea overnight, including two tankers, a cargo ship, and a floating crane.

Brovdi said the ferry crossing had been served by five ferries before the campaign. According to his assessment, two have been destroyed, two others have been damaged so severely they can no longer operate under their own power, and only one remains fully operational.

Based on that assessment, he estimated the crossing now retains only 25% of its previous transport capacity, significantly reducing Russia's ability to move vehicles and cargo across the Kerch Strait.

He also claimed a replacement vessel is being prepared in Russia's Astrakhan region to reinforce the crossing.

Part of Ukraine's campaign against Russian logistics

The Kerch ferry crossing is one of Russia's major logistics links between mainland Russia and occupied Crimea, transporting vehicles, cargo, and military supplies across the Kerch Strait. Disrupting the crossing could complicate Russia's ability to move equipment and sustain forces based in occupied Crimea and southern Ukraine.

Brovdi said operations against both the ferry crossing and occupied Crimea's energy infrastructure would continue indefinitely.

Ukraine has increasingly targeted Russian military logistics far behind the front lines, including ports, rail infrastructure, fuel depots, airfields, and energy facilities that support Moscow's war effort. Kyiv says the strikes are intended to reduce Russia's ability to sustain combat operations and force it to divert resources to defending critical infrastructure.

Ukrainian drones hit 14 more Russian vessels — 10 tankers and four ferries — overnight on 12 July in the Sea of Azov, Unmanned Systems Forces (SBS) commander Robert "Madyar" Brovdi reported. The strikes cap a week in which Ukraine hit 90 ships serving Russia's continued occupation of Crimea and the fuel trade in the Black Sea region. Moscow, a week into the losses, has shown no visible attempt to defend its commercial shadow fleet.

One vessel every 112 minutes 

This morning, Brovdi wrote:

"14 vessels on the night of 12 July: 10 tankers and 4 ferries," the commander said, adding that this puts the week of 6–12 July at 90 units of Russia's shadow fleet hunted down by the "birds" of SBS. 

That works out to one Russian tanker, tug, dry cargo carrier, or special vessel struck every 112 minutes of the week. 

"Moscow will fall," the commander added.

His post carries video of the strikes:

Among the identifiable targets are the ferries Mariya, Yeysk, and Sky One — the latter hit in the port of occupied Kerch by pilots of the 413th Raid Regiment — plus an unnamed ferry used for transport across the Kerch Strait.

The SBS's live scoreboard currently shows 14 new strikes on Russian shipping. The tally can move in either direction during the day — up or down — as internal reports get verified. The total of Russian ships hit in July now stands at 91.

NASA FIRMS satellite data shows fires in the usual location — the anchorage north of occupied Kerch.

Small tankers, double duty

The shadow fleet tankers under attack are not blue-water, ocean-going ships. They are smaller—yet mostly also sanctioned—vessels built for Russia's internal waterways, sized to squeeze through the Volga-Don Canal. Russia has moved them en masse to the Azov and Black seas for two jobs: pumping export fuel at sea into ocean-going shadow-fleet tankers sailing with trackers switched off, and supplying occupied Crimea.

Damaging them en masse kills two birds with one stone. Each disabled tanker cuts the volume of Russian oil exports at the source and tightens the noose around the occupied peninsula. And beyond the material damage sits the sheer shame: shipping disabled in such quantities has not been seen since World War II.

Disable, don't sink

Madyar's videos show the method. Ukrainian drones consistently go for the ships' superstructure and bridge, or sometimes the propulsion section at the stern. The goal appears to be to render the vessels uncontrollable rather than send them under.

Sinking would demand more drones per ship — and would cause an ecological disaster in the shallow Sea of Azov. Moreover, the tugs that come to evacuate the ships-turned-barges become the next targets.

Russia can't fight back

About a week into the campaign against its shipping, Russia has shown no sign of trying to protect the vessels — no warplanes or helicopters, no navy ships, not even onboard firearms. Some ships display metal bars rigged in front of the bridge, a passive, improvised anti-drone screen that is useless against the powerful FP-1 and FP-2 strike drones. 

Moscow's only visible reaction has been retreat: it halted shipping through the Don-Azov canal and closed the Kerch Strait after the tanker strikes — pulling its disabled vessels off the water instead of defending them.

The pace shows why. Just the night before, the tally was staggering: "28 vessels of Russia's shadow fleet hunted down on the night of 11 July in the Azov Sea by the Birds of SBS," Madyar wrote yesterday: 

And the ships were only part of that night's work — the SBS also hit nine energy nodes in the occupied territories, the Saky thermal power plant, a training ground, a special communications node, and what the commander called an enemy lair in Horlivka, Donetsk Oblast.