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Vacationers were sent scrambling for safety Monday after a projectile struck a crowded beach in a Russian Black Sea resort town, killing seven people, including four children, and injuring dozens more, officials said.
Video footage captured the incident in the village of Arkhipo-Osipovka near Gelendzhik, where the beach was packed with visitors at the time of the strike.
The Russian Mission in Geneva said in a post on X that the “bloody attack” was carried out by a drone launched by Ukraine, accusing Kyiv of targeting civilians.
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“The attack targeted civilian infrastructure. Emergency and special services are working at the crash site,” regional Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev said in a post on Telegram.
“What happened today is a targeted attack by the Kyiv regime against civilians who have no connection to the military infrastructure. This cynical and inhumane terrorist attack against children cannot be justified.”
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Andriy Kovalenko, an officer with Ukraine’s Defense Forces, disputed Russia’s account, saying the deaths were directly caused by Russian air defenses that intercepted a drone, sending debris onto the beach.
“Russian air defense shot down a drone over people lying on the beach,” Kovalenko said on Telegram.
In the video, sounds resembling gunfire were heard just seconds before a drone struck the beach, causing a fireball explosion that sent bystanders screaming. As the gunfire was heard, the drone appeared to veer sharply before diving toward the beach.
Preliminary Russian reports also found that several of the deaths were caused by “falling drone debris,” Kondratyev said.
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In another Telegram post, Kovalenko indicated that Ukraine uses its weapons against Russian military-industrial infrastructure to affect Moscow’s ability to finance the war.
He further accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of creating an “illusion” that Russia would remain safe from the war by downplaying daily explosions as falling debris, limiting air raid warnings, and positioning air defenses near populated areas such as the Black Sea resort.
“Putin deliberately killed these people. Because if he had not started the war and struck Ukraine, they would be alive,” Kovalenko said.
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“It was Putin, his air defense, who killed these Russians. His decisions in response to their decisions launched a chain of death for Russians.”