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By Ellie Cook
Senior Defense Reporter
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New satellite images show Russia's fortifications around the Crimean Bridge, which links the annexed peninsula south of mainland Ukraine to Russian territory, as Kyiv increases its pressure campaign on Crimea.
Russia has placed floating buoys around the bridge, images uploaded to Google Earth and from the European Union's Copernicus satellites appear to show. The images were captured between October 7, 2025, and June 16, 2026.
The Russian fortifications are designed to slow down Ukrainian drones packed with explosives traveling in the water, making it easier for Russian forces to intercept attacking surface vessels, said Sidharth Kaushal, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) think tank in London.
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Ukraine has, in recent weeks, upped its attacks on Crimea, saying it hopes to cut off the peninsula from Moscow by targeting Russian logistics sites propping up operations in southern Ukraine with medium-range drones, as well as the fuel facilities powering both the Kremlin's war effort and its economy. Ukraine has also persistently struck Russia's oil facilities in multiple regions, including a refinery just a few miles from the Kremlin in Moscow.
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Russia illegally annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, the territory now hosting several major Russian military bases and remaining a major holiday destination for Russian tourists, despite persistent Ukrainian attacks.
Kyiv has vowed to reclaim Crimea and other regions internationally recognized as part of Ukraine, while Russia insists it will not give up control of the territory it currently controls. Territorial disputes have been the thorniest issue in now-stalled peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow.
The Crimean Bridge, also known as the Kerch Bridge, connects Russia's Krasnodar region and the peninsula. Russian President Vladimir Putin personally unveiled the construction in 2018, the bridge quickly becoming a symbol reviled by Ukraine and an attractive target for Kyiv.
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The bridge has been closed and reopened several times, including after a bomb loaded onto a truck exploded in October 2022, sparking a fire and causing chunks of the bridge to disintegrate into the water below. At least three people were killed, Russian officials said at the time.
Ukraine has previously used explosive-laden drones to attack the bridge, prompting Russia to deploy new defenses around the structure.
Russia has for years placed netting and buoys around the bridge, Kaushal said.
Russian-backed authorities in Crimea said over the weekend that gas stations would no longer sell fuel to civilians, offering fuel only to government agencies.
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All outdoor events have been banned, streetlights have been turned off, and authorities in Crimea have said public transport timetables have been scaled back, fresh evidence that the Ukrainian drone campaign is successfully putting pressure on Russia in Crimea.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said last week that Kyiv was trying to turn Crimea "into an island," and Kyiv then said on Sunday it struck several targets near the Crimean Bridge, including two oil sites and four radars used by Russia's advanced air defense systems to detect incoming threats.
Ukraine's military then said on Monday the weekend's strikes had damaged part of the Kavkaz oil port in Krasnodar and two car ferries around the bridge that were used to supply Russian troops in occupied parts of Ukraine.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: John Feng and Sam Wilson.
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