Russia Blames US for Deadly Missile Attack on Crimea

A missile exploded above a beach area of the city of Sevastopol, firing shrapnel at people relaxing there, Russian-appointed officials said.

Russia's defense ministry said Washington and Kiev bore "responsibility for a deliberate missile strike on peaceful residents", which it said used U.S.-supplied ATACMS missiles.

Sevastopol governor Mikhail Razvozhayev initially said in a Telegram video the attack had killed three children and two adults, and wounded nearly 120 people.

He later revised the toll to four dead and 151 people requiring medical care, of whom 82 had been hospitalised.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had called to "offer his condolences", Razvozhayev added.

The Black Sea port city and naval base on the Crimean peninsula was annexed by Russia in 2014 but is still internationally recognized as part of Ukraine.

Sevastopol regularly comes under fire from Ukraine but Sunday's attack was unusually deadly. Razvozhayev said the attack hit Uchkuyevka, an area with sandy beaches and hotels.

Videos posted on social media showed people running from the beach as explosions went off and people in swimming outfits carrying a stretcher. AFP could not verify their authenticity.

A local news channel on Telegram, ChP Sevastopol, cited witnesses as saying that an elderly woman was killed as she swam in the sea.

Washington said in April that it had provided longer-range ATACMS missile systems to Kiev, which had long urged allies for weapons allowing it to strike Russia farther beyond the front lines.

Neither the United States nor Ukraine had commented on the Sevastopol strike.

  'Terrorist act' 

The investigative committee, which probes major crimes, said it was opening an investigation into "a terrorist act".

The governor said Ukraine had launched five missiles that Russian air-defenses intercepted over the sea but fragments fell onto the shore, wounding people.

Razvozhayev said shrapnel hit beach areas in the north of the city and set fire to a house and woodland.

A Russian defense ministry statement said Ukraine had committed a "terrorist attack on the civilian infrastructure of Sevastopol with U.S.-supplied ATACMS tactical missiles loaded with cluster warheads".

The ministry said four missiles were downed but a fifth changed trajectory after being intercepted "with its warhead exploding in the air over the city".

It added that "all flight missions for U.S. ATACMS are entered by U.S. specialists based on the U.S.'s own satellite reconnaissance data.

"Such actions will not be left without a response," the ministry said.

Ukraine's military has not commented on the attack, which came a day after a Russian guided bomb strike on the city of Kharkiv hit an apartment building, killing two people and wounding more than 50.

Source: HDN