Beachgoers near Sevastopol were still on the sand on the evening of June 23, 2024, when pieces of a missile came down on them. Russian officials say the weapon was an American-made ATACMS fired by Ukraine. The holiday crowd had no siren to warn them, eyewitnesses said.
Russian authorities counted four dead, two of them children, and around 151 injured, 27 of those children. One outlet that covered the strike put the death toll at five. Sevastopol’s governor, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said that by that evening 144 people had asked for medical help and 82 needed a hospital bed.
What Moscow says happened
The Russian Ministry of Defence said four of five ATACMS missiles, loaded with submunitions, were intercepted over the city. The fifth was knocked off course by air defenses, and its fragments dropped on Sevastopol and on the shore at Uchkuyivka and Lyubimovka, on the northern edge of town. Most of the submunitions went off in the water, according to the account.
Video from the beach shows people running from falling debris and carrying the wounded away.
One victim was the daughter of the deputy mayor of Magadan. Razvozhayev stressed the timing of the strike, which fell on the Trinity holiday, when families were on the beach and others were heading home from work.
Blame aimed at Washington
The ministry pointed the finger at the United States. In a Telegram post it said American specialists enter the flight missions for ATACMS missiles, using U.S. satellite reconnaissance data. Responsibility, it said, lay “primarily with Washington” and with the government in Kyiv.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was blunter about what comes next. The “direct involvement” of the United States, he told reporters, “as a result of which Russian civilians are killed, cannot be without consequences.” He added that President Vladimir Putin was being kept informed and was in constant contact with officials in Crimea.
Russia’s Investigative Committee opened a criminal case, classing the strike as a terrorist act. Sevastopol declared a day of mourning for June 24.
Washington and Kyiv respond
A Pentagon spokesman, Major Charlie Dietz, said Kyiv picks its own targets when it hits Russia. A U.S. official told Reuters the missile had been aimed at a Russian missile launcher. Open-source researchers later suggested that the air defense launcher the missile was likely going after sat on a different Sevastopol beach, near Radiogorka.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the head of Ukraine’s Presidential Office, offered no apology. In his view, there are no “beaches” or “tourist zones” in Crimea, because the peninsula is occupied territory where a full-scale war goes on. Ukrainian forces, he said, would keep striking it.
On June 27, Razvozhayev said the occupation administration would not close Sevastopol’s beaches. It only advised people to stay away from the city’s North Side, where he said there are no shelters. A memorial chapel for the victims opened in Uchkuyivka Park in the summer of 2025.
Sources
- June 2024 Sevastopol missile attack – Wikipedia
- Kremlin threatens US after ATACMS attack on Crimean beach kills and injures many – London Business News | Londonlovesbusiness.com
Sources
- June 2024 Sevastopol missile attack – Wikipedia
- Kremlin threatens US after ATACMS attack on Crimean beach …
