Drones reportedly struck a Russian Federal Security Service facility in Russian-occupied Crimea overnight on May 6, after a series of explosions rocked the city of Armiansk at around 9 p.m. local time on May 5. Social media videos began circulating showing blasts in Crimea and what appeared to be the aftermath of a drone strike on an FSB building.
The Crimean Wind reported on May 6 that the FSB border guard service building in Armiansk was hit, writing that “Half of the FSB building is completely gone, according to our subscribers,” while Crimea’s Moscow-installed governor, Sergey Aksyonov, said at 10:28 p.m. local time on May 5 that enemy drones were attacking the peninsula. Aksyonov said air defense systems and mobile fire teams were involved, and urged people to remain calm and rely only on official sources of information.
Armiansk is in Russian-occupied Crimea, a region that has seen a renewed drumbeat of attacks in recent weeks as Ukraine has stepped up strikes on Russian-occupied territories. Ukraine has not commented on the incident, and the Kyiv Independent could not immediately verify the claims made by Aksyonov or the Crimean Wind.
The strike, if confirmed, would add to a pattern that has forced Russian-installed authorities in Crimea to acknowledge more nighttime drone activity and more damage claims than they have been willing to detail publicly. Ukraine’s military intelligence agency on May 5 released a video showing targets within occupied Ukraine that were struck by its special operations unit Ghosts, underscoring the pace of operations now unfolding across occupied territory.