At least seven people, including three children, have died and another 40 have been injured on a beach in Gelendhik, on the Black Sea, in Russia’s Krasnodar region, after a Ukrainian drone was shot down. The authorities have described what happened as a “deliberate attack.” Although, from Ukraine they point out that they do not deliberately attack civilians.
In the video shared by Reuters you can see how an unmanned device plummets and crashes into the sand of the beach, causing a large explosion and a shock wave, affecting the people who were sunbathing at that time. The air raid alarms had not been activated, so most people were caught off guard.
The real target of the attack was a hotel where Russian engineers are staying
Veniamin Kondratyev, governor of the Russian region of Krasnodar, has called what happened a “tragedy” in a statement on Telegram in which he also attacked Ukraine because this attack “has no connection with military infrastructure.” Several medical teams traveled to the scene to treat the injured. A total of 21 people, including the three children, were taken to hospital in serious condition.
The spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, has accused Ukraine of terrorism, as reported by the local news agency TASS. “A terrorist gang operates in the center of Europe that has occupied the state apparatus of Ukraine. The sponsors of terrorism are the NATO countries,” he noted.
Local media have indicated that, in reality, the real objective of the Ukrainian attack was a rest hotel for specialists and engineers from a Russian military industry company.
Zelensky warns of possible Kremlin interference in the elections of European countries
For his part, the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, who participated in a meeting with ambassadors from kyiv, has assured that the main objective is for Russia to stop the fighting before winter. Hence the chosen method, drones, so that Moscow has “no alternative but peace due to the high cost of war.”
He has also warned of the Kremlin’s alleged intentions to interfere in the upcoming elections to be held in France, Germany, the United States or Israel because “it never misses the opportunity to interfere in elections through hybrid influence, financial measures or destabilization.”
