Drone hits crowded Russian beach in Gelendzhik, killing seven including three children

The beach strike

A drone struck a busy beach in the Russian Black Sea resort of Gelendzhik, in the Krasnodar region, on Monday. Regional governor Veniamin Kondratyev said seven people were killed, including three children. On Tuesday morning, authorities updated the number of wounded to 58, with 21 of them hospitalised. Footage verified by the BBC showed the moment of impact, with what sounded like rapid gunfire audible before the explosion. Several residents told Russian media they heard no warning siren before the attack.

“What happened today was a deliberate attack by the Kyiv regime on the civilian population, which has no connection whatsoever to military infrastructure.”

Russian authorities said the victims were struck by flying debris, a formulation that Reuters noted suggests the drone was brought down by air defence fire and crashed into the resort. Ukrainian media, without official confirmation, reported that the drone was not targeting the beach and fell there after electronic interference blocked its signal. The drone may have been aimed at a Russian naval base roughly 40 kilometres away, according to some reports.

Wider wave of strikes

Overnight into Tuesday, the Russian Defence Ministry reported that its air defences shot down 320 Ukrainian drones across Russian regions and the annexed Crimean peninsula. An earlier ministry statement on Tuesday morning had put the figure at 131 drones intercepted. In the Moscow region, governor Andrei Vorobyov said a Ukrainian drone attack killed five people and wounded 10 others on Tuesday morning, with most damage in the Chekhov municipal district where fires broke out at the Novoselki industrial zone.

On the Crimean peninsula, the Moscow-installed governor Sergei Aksyonov said the death toll from a Ukrainian attack rose to four, up from an earlier count of three. He gave no further details. Wildberries, Russia's largest online retailer, said its warehouse in the Leningrad region near St Petersburg was on fire, and drone debris caused partial damage to a wall of another Wildberries warehouse in the village of Emmaus in the Tver region, between Moscow and St Petersburg.

Russian strikes on Ukraine

Russia's Defence Ministry said its forces continued to strike Ukrainian ports, vessels, and port infrastructure overnight. In the port of Chornomorsk in the Odesa region, the ministry said it hit an automobile components plant and a port terminal where Ukrainian forces were repairing military vehicles and storing ammunition and fuel. A bulk carrier with military cargo was damaged in Mykolaiv, and another ship unloading military cargo was hit in Pivdennyi, another Black Sea port.

On the same day, the funeral of several Ukrainians killed in a Russian ballistic missile attack a week earlier, including three children, took place. Denmark's ambassador to the United Nations said Russian strikes have become more brutal.

The civilian toll

Since Russia's full-scale invasion more than four years ago, Ukraine has developed long-range drones that can strike deep inside Russian territory. In the past year, they have hit oil facilities, major storage depots, and other key infrastructure. Russia's relentless aerial attacks on Ukraine have killed more than 16,000 civilians, with casualties rising steadily each year, according to the United Nations. Neither side publishes verifiable numbers of troop casualties on the front line, which winds about 800 miles through eastern and southern Ukraine.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly said the war must be carried back onto Russian territory. Kyiv has not officially commented on the Gelendzhik strike. The attack marks a moment where civilian deaths inside Russia, even if accidental, are becoming a more visible part of the conflict as Ukraine intensifies its long-range campaign.