US missiles massacre beachgoers in Crimea while US says Ukraine could strike ‘anywhere’ in Russia

June 24, 2024

On Sunday, four people were killed and 144 injured when an American-made long-range missile fired from Ukraine dropped cluster bombs over a busy beach in Sevastopol, Crimea.

Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhaev said 82 people were hospitalized and 27 children were injured.

Debris and scattered beach toys on the beach in Sevastopol after a rocket attack, June 23, 2024. (Photo: RT)

The Russian Defense Ministry claimed that the attack on the beachgoers was “deliberate” and stated: “The responsibility for the targeted missile attack on the civilian population of Sevastopol lies primarily with Washington, which supplied Ukraine with these weapons, and the Kiev regime, from whose territory this attack was carried out.”

The Russian Defense Ministry claimed that four US Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles were launched in the air over Crimea and that one of them dropped its bombs, killing and injuring beachgoers. It claimed that the coordinates of the ATACMS missiles were transmitted by US spy satellites.

“Cluster munitions fell on the beach. There is a high population density there, that’s why there are so many casualties,” said an analyst at a Russian think tank. Sputnik News.

sputnik reported: “As the ATACMS were being launched in Sevastopol, a US RQ-4 Global Hawk long-range surveillance drone was spotted over the Black Sea.”

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev called on Russia to retaliate and expressed hope that the “US” would “burn in hell… in earthly fire.” Medvedev said: “The bastards from the US are supplying rockets with cluster charges to the followers of (Ukrainian fascist Stepan) Bandera and are helping them to achieve their goal.”

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill noted that the attack took place on the Eastern Orthodox holiday of Trinity Sunday and said: “There was no justification whatsoever for a rocket attack on civilians.”

The attack on Sevastopol is the latest in a series of escalatory steps by the United States aimed at making the whole of Russia vulnerable to attacks with American weapons from Ukraine.

In April, the Biden administration began supplying Ukraine with long-range ATACMS missiles, which have a range of 300 kilometers, but claimed they would not be used for attacks inside Russia.

Last month, the US expanded the rules of engagement for its weapons, with US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan saying Ukrainian forces could attack Russian forces “anywhere” in Russia.

In an interview with PBS, Sullivan was asked whether the US authorization to attack Russia “extends beyond the Kharkiv region, including the Sumy region, where Russian forces are also attacking Ukraine.” Sullivan responded:

It extends to any area where Russian forces are moving across the border from the Russian side to the Ukrainian side to capture more Ukrainian territory. That’s what happened in Kharkiv, and we’ve seen early signs of Russia making initial probing attempts in Sumy. And that applies there too. This is not about geography. … If Russia is attacking Ukraine from its territory or is about to attack it, it only makes sense to allow Ukraine to strike back against the forces attacking it from across the border.

In 2022, Biden published a commentary in New York Times It said: “We neither encourage nor enable Ukraine to strike beyond its borders.”

In May New York Times Explaining the implications of Biden’s decision to allow Ukraine to strike deep inside Russia, he said:

Since the first American deliveries of sophisticated weapons to Ukraine, President Biden has never deviated from one ban: President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had to agree never to fire these weapons into Russian territory, as this would violate Biden’s mandate to “avoid a third world war.” But consensus on this policy is crumbling.

The attack followed the White House announcement earlier this month that the United States was in the process of lifting all numerical limits on the deployment of nuclear weapons.

All these escalation steps are taking place in the background of the upcoming NATO summit in Washington, which is scheduled to take place from July 9 to 11. The summit is expected to announce a significant expansion of the direct engagement and participation of the USA and NATO in the Ukraine war, possibly including the deployment of ground troops.

In May, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Charles Q. Brown told the New York Times that the NATO military alliance will send a significant number of active NATO troops to Ukraine “at some point,” which, according to the newspaper, means that the deployment is “inevitable.”

The latest attack came as the Ukrainian government continued to push more people to fight on the front lines. In a rare honest portrayal of the terror facing Ukraine’s young men, New York Times reported that “while officers scour the country’s cities to draft men of military age, which currently ranges from 25 to 60 years old, many young men have gone into hiding, fearing that conscription would give them a ticket to the front.”

The Just quoted a 28-year-old web developer as saying, “I’m afraid I won’t get enough training and then I’ll be pushed further up the ladder and then I’ll die senselessly.” The Just commented: “These fears are supported by some military analysts who say Ukrainian troops are often under-trained, making it difficult for Kyiv to hold its lines as they are quickly sent into battle to make up for combat losses.”

In the face of increasing NATO-backed attacks on its own country, there are signs that the Russian government wants to change its official military doctrine in order to be able to decide more quickly on the use of nuclear weapons.

On Sunday, RIA Novosti quoted Andrei Kartapolov, chairman of the Defense Committee of the Russian Lower House, as raising the possibility of changing the conditions under which nuclear weapons can be used.

“If we see that the challenges and threats are increasing, it means that we need to correct something (in the doctrine) regarding the timing of the use of nuclear weapons and the decision to use them,” RIA Kartapolov was quoted as saying.