Russia says 4 killed at popular holiday resort including a child in Ukrainian drone attack

MOSCOW – Russia said on Monday ‌that six people, including three children, had been killed and about 40 injured at its Black Sea holiday resort of Gelendzhik in what it said was a deliberate Ukrainian drone attack on civilians.There ​was no immediate comment from Ukraine, which like Russia, says it does not ​deliberately target civilians in the full-scale war which Moscow launched in ⁠2022.Social media videos, verified by Reuters, showed what appears to be a drone slamming ​into a busy beach area near the town of Gelendzhik, accompanied by a loud ​explosion.Veniamin Kondratyev, the governor of Russia’s southern Krasnodar region where Gelendzhik is located, called what had happened a tragedy.He said 17 people were being rushed to hospital.“What happened today was a deliberate attack by ​the Kyiv regime on the civilian population, which has no connection whatsoever to military ​infrastructure,” Veniamin Kondratyev, the governor of Russia’s southern Krasnodar region which includes the resort, said in a statement ‌on ⁠Telegram.A specialist medical disaster team had been dispatched to the scene of the explosion at the holiday village of Arkhipo-Osipovka, part of the wider Gelendzhik resort area, local authorities said.Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova was cited by the TASS state news agency ​as accusing Ukraine of ​resorting to terrorism.Russia ⁠last month accused Kyiv’s forces of killing 11 people, including four children, in an attack on a holiday camp in a Russian-held part ​of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region.Russia itself has repeatedly struck targets in ​Kyiv and ⁠other Ukrainian cities, displacing millions and laying waste to swathes of Ukraine.

Thousands of civilians have so far died in the war, most of them Ukrainians killed in Russian attacks.Ukraine ⁠has stepped ​up long-range attacks deep into Russia in recent ​months, mainly targeting oil refineries and e-commerce warehouses, in what it s...