Russia says seven killed as Ukrainian drone hits crowded beach

MOSCOW — At least seven people, including three children, were killed in southern Russia on Monday after debris from a Ukrainian drone fell onto a crowded beach, according to local officials, in one of the deadliest incidents in recent weeks.Russian officials also blamed Ukraine for another explosion that killed five people in a Moscow restaurant.Another four people were killed in a Ukrainian strike on the illegally annexed Crimea, the Moscow-installed governor, Sergey Aksyonov, said in a post on Telegram.Both Crimea and the Black Sea coast are popular holiday destinations for Russian tourists during summer.The crisis taskforce for Russia’s southern Krasnodar region said seven people died when “drone debris” struck a beach in the seaside town of Arkhipo-Osipovka. Social media videos, verified by Reuters, showed tourists in the water and on the shore watching on as what appeared to be a drone slammed into a busy beach.Three of those killed in the incident in a Black Sea resort area in the city of Gelendzhik, were children, local authorities in the Krasnodar region said in a statement.It is unclear whether the incident was caused by the drone being shot down by Russian air defenses or the drone crashing.Regional governor Veniamin Kondratiev said the people on the beach were killed “when debris from a UAV fell.”A further 40 more people were injured in the incident, Kondratiev said. Of those, 21 were hospitalized and 19 others received medical treatment, local authorities said.Kondratiev expressed his “sincere condolences to their families and loved ones.”In a statement to CNN, the head of the Ukrainian government’s Center for Countering Disinformation, Andriy Kovalenko, said: “This was the work of Russian air defense forces, which shot down the drone over a beach full of vacationers. And pathetic efforts by the Russian authorities, who often conceal air raid alerts or fail to do everything necessary to ensure Russians’ safety during such alerts.”“The deaths of Russians on the beach in Gelendzhik are entirely the fault of the Russian air defense forces,” Kovalenko said. “Ukraine uses its weapons exclusively against Russia’s military-industrial complex (and) economic infrastructure that affects Russia’s ability to finance the war.”Russia’s Krasnodar region is frequently targeted by Ukrainian forces, where they have previously attacked naval assets and oil infrastructure.The Novorossiysk Naval Base, which is the primary hub for Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, is located about 25 miles away from the resort town of Gelendzhik. Russian President Vladimir Putin also reportedly has a palace near the town, though the Kremlin’s spokesperson has previously denied the Russian leader was linked to any estate there.Earlier, Russia blamed Ukraine for a bombing at a restaurant in central Moscow that killed five people, amid growing speculation that a senior Russian military commander was the intended target.The explosion occurred on Saturday evening near the entrance to an upmarket Italian restaurant in one of the city’s seven Stalin-era skyscrapers on Kudrinskaya Square.Russian prosecutors said an unidentified woman carrying an improvised explosive device had attempted to enter the restaurant but was stopped by a security guard.The device detonated moments later, killing five people and injuring 19 others.In Ukraine, one person was killed and dozens more injured when Russian planes launched a 90-minute bombing blitz on residential districts in the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, the regional chief, Ivan Fedorov, said on Monday.Over the past month, Ukraine has edged up lethal strikes on Russia, targeting energy infrastructure, factories making weapons, military hardware sites and shipping facilities.At least 61 people were killed and 327 others wounded from July 24 to July 31 by Ukrainian drone strikes and shelling, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Maria Zakharova, said on Friday. On July 18, at least eight people were killed by Ukrainian drone attacks in Russia – marking the deadliest salvo reported inside the country in more than two years.That same month in Ukraine, Russian attacks killed at least 377 civilians and injured 2,129 others, making it the deadliest month of the invasion since April 2022.