Russia: Ukraine launched deadly attack on Crimean coast with US missiles

Russia claims that Ukraine attacked Crimea with missiles fired from the US, killing at least five people, including two children, and injuring 124 others.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Kiev attacked the city of Sevastopol on the Russian-occupied peninsula with army tactical missile systems (ATACMS) on Sunday, deliberately targeting civilians.

Russia claims to have fired four missiles, one of which detonated in mid-air before rocket fragments landed near a crowded beach in the north of the city.

Footage from Russian state television showed frightened people running from a beach and others having to be carried away on makeshift stretchers in the shape of sun loungers.

The ministry claimed that US specialists had determined the missiles’ flight coordinates using information from American spy satellites and said Washington bore direct responsibility for this.

A statement from the Russian Defense Ministry said: “All flight missions for American operational-tactical ATACMS missiles are entered by American specialists based on their own US satellite reconnaissance data.

“Therefore, responsibility for the targeted missile attack on civilians in Sevastopol lies primarily with Washington, which supplied Ukraine with these weapons, and with the Kyiv regime, from whose territory this attack was carried out.

“Such actions will not go unanswered.”

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Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Russia intends to provoke a response from international organizations to the Ukrainian shelling of Sevastopol, adding that these organizations are “engaged by the West.”

Ukraine has not commented on allegations that it was behind the attack in Crimea.

The Russian-appointed governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhaev, said Monday would be a day of mourning in the city and public events would be cancelled.

Meanwhile, in the Russian town of Grayvoron on the border with Ukraine, one person was killed and three injured in an attack by three drones from Kiev, said the region’s governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov.

The air defenses shot down 33 Ukrainian drones in the Bryansk, Smolensk, Lipetsk and Tula regions bordering Ukraine on Saturday evening, the Russian Defense Ministry said. No casualties or damage were reported.

On the second day of the Russian air strike on Ukraine’s second largest city, at least one person was killed in Kharkiv and ten others were injured.

Ihor Terekhov, the city’s mayor, said the city had been attacked with a guided bomb and about half of the city’s houses were without electricity as a result.

Sunday’s attacks came after Russia attacked Kharkiv with four aerial bombs on Saturday afternoon, hitting a five-story residential building and killing three people.

The region’s governor, Oleh Syniehubov, said 41 people were still being treated for injuries on Sunday.

Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 and since then the peninsula has been under Moscow’s control.

The United States has been supplying the Ukrainian army with ATACMS missiles with a longer range of 300 kilometers since the beginning of this year.

Additional reporting from Reuters and AP