400 ice creams a day.
That's what Anatoli used to sell from his little stand in Simeiz, on Crimea's sunlit southern coast.
Now?
"The season is completely ruined," he says. "It's practically non-existent."
He's not exaggerating.
Crimea just had its tourist season quietly collapse — and drones are why.
Since June, Ukrainian drones have been hammering Crimea's power substations and fuel depots.
The result:
Sun loungers empty. Restaurant terraces empty. A luxury hotel is now slashing prices by 30% just to get anyone through the door.
This was supposed to be Russia's Mediterranean.
The Kremlin has pledged 4.3 billion rubles in one-off payments to tourism workers — three months' salary, based on minimum wage.
Nice gesture.
Doesn't fix a driving school that can't get petrol.
Doesn't fix a restaurant with no power.
"Business is suffering," one local holidaymaker put it simply. "Of course it is."
Yulia came from Belgorod, itself no stranger to strikes. A drone hit an apartment block near her hotel the night before, wounding 17 people.
Her reaction?
"I heard a drone twice and that was it."
Another visitor, Vladislav, drove in with jerry cans of petrol packed in his car — just in case.
"They fly overhead whether we're waking up at 7am or going to bed," he shrugged. "No-one's safe."
Ukraine says the goal is simple: squeeze Russia hard enough at home to force peace talks.
And for the first time since the 2014 annexation, Crimea's sunniest export — tourism — is the thing paying the price.
Anatoli is still scooping ice cream.
Just a lot less of it.
That's all for now!
