How a day at the beach in Crimea turned to chaos after Ukrainian drone smashed into civilians and killed seven

Kyiv said it does not target civilians but is ramping up long-range strikes

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Russia has said that seven people, including three children, were killed and 40 injured on a Crimea beach after a Ukrainian drone smashed into a busy holiday resort.

Another 40 people were injured after a drone crashed into the beach near the Black Sea town of Gelendzhik on Monday, in what Moscow claimed was a deliberate attack. Ukraine has not claimed responsibility and there is currently no evidence to suggest civilians were targeted.

It comes as Kyiv drives up its long-range attacks in Moscow, seeking to ramp up the pressure on Vladimir Putin to bring an end to his four-and-a-half year war.

Sam Kiley: The real worry for Ukraine’s allies as beach strike on Russian civilians marks a shift in the war

Kyiv, like Moscow - whose attacks on Ukraine have devastated cities and killed thousands of civilians - says it does not deliberately target civilians.

Ukraine says it does not deliberately target civilians. Moscow says the same, but its attacks frequently focus on major cities and civilian infrastructure.

Here’s everything we know about the incident.

Verified social media footage shows the moment the drone veered towards the beach before slamming into it, causing a large explosion and sending people fleeing from the water.

Russian officials said 21 people, including three children, were hospitalised and a specialist medical disaster team was dispatched to the scene of the explosion at the holiday village of Arkhipo-Osipovka, part of the wider Gelendzhik resort area.

Nine people were in a serious condition following the explosion, authorities said.

Tourists and residents told local media that there had been no sirens or warning of the attack, according to the BBC. "We covered ourselves with sun loungers, and didn't see where it exploded," one holidaymaker said.

"This all happened in front of my children. My child is having a nervous breakdown," said another.

Veniamin Kondratyev, the governor of Russia's ‌southern Krasnodar region, which includes the resort, described the incident as a tragedy.

He said in a statement on Telegram said: “What happened today was a deliberate attack by the Kyiv regime on the civilian population, which has no connection whatsoever to military infrastructure.”

Kondratyev spoke in an earlier statement about falling drone fragments, a phrase that usually suggests that Russian air defences have brought down a Ukrainian drone.

It was not clear in this case if Russia had used electronic jamming or other air defence methods to try to change the course of the drone before it slammed into the beach.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova was cited by the TASS state news agency as accusing Ukraine of resorting to terrorism.

But Russia frequently makes baseless accusations against Ukraine of targeting civilians and carrying out acts of terrorism, so it remains unclear whether the incident has been used to spread misleading claims.

Moscow says the attack was a deliberate strike by Ukraine.

But another explanation has been posed by Ukrainian Telegram channels, including Exilenova+, that have suggested the drone had been jammed by Russia’s electronic warfare.

Russian media outlet Astra reported eyewitness footage suggesting that air-defence activity by Russian forces could have been the cause of the drone crashing in that area.

In online footage of the explosions, a patter of gunfire can be heard before the drone erupts in a fireball on the beach.

Kyiv is yet to provide an official response to the drone strike, but has previously reiterated that it does not attempt to harm civilians.

But the Ukrainian military has stepped up long-range attacks deep into Russia in recent months, mainly targeting oil refineries and e-commerce warehouses, a campaign which is likely to increase how often such tragedies occur - even if they are not deliberate.

Kyiv says the campaign intends to make Russians feel the cost of the war, similarly to how Ukrainians have bore the brunt of persistent Russian strikes on the country’s energy infrastructure.

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