Crimea has banned the use of motorised vehicles such as scooters, quad bikes and motorcycles at nighttime, saying they sound like drone attacks, Moscow-installed authorities said.
Sergei Aksyonov, the peninsula’s Russian-installed governor, said the ban, which he called a temporary measure to guard military and other important facilities, would be in place between 8pm and 6am from Wednesday onwards.
The peninsula was annexed by Russia from Ukraine in 2014.
“The moped noise hampers the work of defence systems. Their engines sound similar (to drones),” Oleg Kryuchkov, Aksyonov’s advisor, said separately on Telegram on Tuesday. “The enemy is recruiting your children for nighttime rides.”
The ban in Crimea, a popular summer tourist destination for Russians, does not apply to cars or larger vehicles.
Ukraine has recently intensified drone attacks on Crimea, home to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, targeting the peninsula’s supply routes and triggering a fuel crisis, as the holiday season starts.
A limit of 20l (5.3gal) of fuel per car at local petrol stations would continue, Mikhail Razvozhayev, the governor of Crimea’s biggest city, Sevastopol, said in a Telegram post late on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, a Ukrainian drone strike halted operations at Moscow’s oil refinery, sources said, adding to widespread damage inflicted on Russian energy facilities and extending the fuel crisis deeper into the country.
Overnight, Russian defence systems downed 10 drones heading for Moscow, mayor Sergei Sobyanin said on Telegram early on Wednesday.
US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday Russia should make peace with Ukraine after a “very good” meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky, in comments that sparked cautious optimism among G7 leaders that a peace deal could be struck.