Drone strike on crowded Russian beach kills at least seven

Scenes from a drone striking a crowded Russian beach

At least seven people, including three children, were killed and 40 others injured after a drone struck a beach at Arkhipo-Osipovka near Russia’s Black Sea resort town of Gelendzhik on Sunday, according to local authorities.

The Krasnodar Krai regional government said 21 injured people were taken to hospital, while another 19 were treated as outpatients. The beach is a popular summer destination for Russian holidaymakers and was reportedly crowded when the drone hit.

Footage verified by the BBC showed the moment the drone struck the beach. Witnesses told Russian local media that they heard what sounded like machine-gun fire before the explosion. One holidaymaker said people on the beach had not had time to leave before the blast. Another witness said the explosion happened in front of their children, while a third described hearing gunfire before the impact.

Russia's Krasnodar Krai governor Veniamin Kondratyev blamed Ukraine for the attack. Ukrainian authorities have not commented on the incident or claimed responsibility. The circumstances surrounding the strike remain unclear.

BBC analyst has said gunfire audible in videos of the incident suggested Russian air-defence forces may have been attempting to bring the drone down before it reached the beach. He said there was also a possibility that electronic interference had affected the drone. They also added that it could not be completely ruled out that the beach had been deliberately targeted, but noted that Ukraine had not previously appeared to deliberately target such locations. He also pointed out that there were potential military targets in the wider area that could have been of interest to Ukrainian forces.

The beach strike also occurred near Gelendzhik, a popular Black Sea resort that has attracted particular attention because of an alleged luxury complex popularly known as "Putin's Palace". The site, which was the subject of an investigation by the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation, lies between Gelendzhik and Arkhipo-Osipovka.

The incident also drew a sharp response from Moscow. Russia's Foreign Ministry accused Western countries of sponsoring "terrorist activity" following the deadly drone strike. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Russia's state-affiliated TASS news agency that NATO and the European Union had previously declared a policy of "zero tolerance towards terrorism" but had now "become part of international terrorist activity".

Russia has blamed Ukraine for the beach strike, but neither the Ukrainian military nor officials in Kyiv have commented on the incident.