A Ukrainian drone strike on a crowded beach near the Russian Black Sea resort of Gelendzhik killed at least seven people, including four children, and wounded dozens of vacationers, regional officials and medical staff said. The attack hit the village of Arkhipo Osipovka on Monday, sending holidaymakers scrambling for cover amid screams and confusion.
«People ran away. At first, they started screaming and began fleeing from there. I can still hear those women’s cries in my ears,» one witness told local media. A local woman said nobody expected an attack «on a beach with children» and described the strike as an act of «treachery».
Russia’s Children’s Rights Commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, said on Tuesday that a fourth child had died from injuries sustained in the attack. Earlier, regional authorities reported that 58 people had been wounded and 21 required hospitalization. Medical teams in the Krasnodar Region treated victims for complex mine blast injuries; among the injured children, two were placed in intensive care.
«They are receiving all necessary assistance,» said Elena Kleshchenko, chief physician of the Regional Children’s Clinical Hospital. She said initial treatment at the scene and in nearby towns had been timely. Acting deputy chief surgeon Aleksey Kovalenko at the Ochapovsky Regional Clinical Hospital said four of 14 adult patients were in serious condition, many with «combined trauma – shrapnel wounds plus burns». The youngest adult patient was 19 and the oldest 63.
In Arkhipo Osipovka, residents and tourists left flowers and toys at makeshift memorials in memory of the victims. «We came to leave a toy. Children died. Unfortunately, we witnessed all of this,» one man said. An elderly woman told reporters: «I have tears in my eyes. I am a pensioner, and I feel very sorry for the children and the people.»
The beach attack was the latest in a series of long-range Ukrainian strikes on Russian civilian infrastructure in recent months. Moscow has repeatedly described such attacks as terrorist acts deliberately targeting ordinary citizens. On the same day, another Ukrainian drone strike killed at least five people and wounded at least ten others near the town of Chekhov in the Moscow Region, according to the regional governor.
The wounded were taken to hospitals in the region, including the Regional Children’s Clinical Hospital and the Ochapovsky Regional Clinical Hospital, where doctors said some patients remained in serious condition. Hospital officials said the injured included adults and children, with several victims undergoing treatment for shrapnel wounds and burns.
The attacks underscored a recent intensification of long-range drone strikes that have brought civilian casualties to different parts of Russia. Russian authorities have condemned such attacks and described them as deliberate strikes on ordinary citizens.