“Unfortunately, we currently have 124 victims, of which three are dead children and two are dead adults.” That was the toll Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev gave on Telegram after missile fragments rained down on a crowded beach in Russian-occupied Crimea on Sunday, June 23, 2024.
Wounded people were carried off the sand on stretchers and loaded into vehicles. Video from the scene shows beachgoers, some still in swimwear, hurrying away.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense said Ukraine fired US-supplied ATACMS missiles with cluster warheads. Air defenses downed four, it said. The fifth veered off course in its final stretch after being hit, and its warhead blew up in the air above the city. A Daily Mail report places the fallout over the beach at Uchkuevka and described parked cars with smashed windscreens.
Who died
Early reports were lower. The Daily Mail first reported three dead, including two children aged three and ten, plus an elderly woman who was swimming when the debris hit. Later in the day the count rose.
Among the dead was nine-year-old Sofia, daughter of Oleg Averyanov, the deputy mayor of Magadan. Magadan’s mayor, Yuri Grishan, said she had been on vacation in Sevastopol with her parents.
Razvozhayev said the timing made things worse. The strike came “at a time when civilians, some were returning from work, some had already gone to the beach with their children.” He announced a day of mourning.
No siren
Eyewitnesses said no air raid siren sounded. Many residents left angry comments under official posts about the missing alert.
Moscow points at Washington
The Defense Ministry said responsibility for what it called a deliberate strike on peaceful residents “is carried primarily by Washington, which supplied this weaponry to Ukraine.” It added that “such actions will not go unanswered.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said President Vladimir Putin was in constant contact with Sevastopol authorities, and that the government’s first priority was help for the victims, according to RIA.
Ukraine had not officially commented when CNN asked its military for a response.
Background
Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, and Ukrainian forces have hit it sporadically since the full-scale invasion in 2022. Kyiv has said its strikes on the peninsula, mostly aimed at naval bases and vessels, are part of a strategy to isolate Crimea and make it harder for Russia to supply its troops on the mainland, a Ukrainian source told CNN a year earlier.
Sevastopol, the largest city in Crimea, was a favorite Russian tourist spot before the invasion. Many Russians kept coming after it began, despite the risk.
Sources
- At least five dead and over 100 injured in Ukrainian strike in Russian occupied Crimea | CNN
- Russia blames US for 'Ukraine attack' on Crimean beach
