At least four people, including two children, were killed in a Ukrainian missile attack on Sunday on Russia’s Crimean Peninsula, Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhaev has said.
The official initially said that three civilians – including two children, one of whom was only two years old – had died in the attack. He wrote on Telegram that all available ambulance teams had been dispatched to the area of Uchkuevka in the northern part of the port city on the Black Sea.
Later on Sunday, Razvozhaev told journalists that the death toll had risen to four. According to the Russian Health Ministry, 124 people were injured, including 27 children. Russian Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova said that five children are in serious condition.
According to Yury Grishan, the mayor of the Russian Far Eastern city of Magadan, one of the deceased was the nine-year-old daughter of his deputy. The girl was killed while on the beach with her parents, the mayor said.
Earlier in the day, Razvozhaev said Russian air defenses had repelled a Ukrainian missile attack. He added, citing preliminary data, that five aerial targets had been shot down, though numerous shell fragments fell in the coastal area, causing injuries and fires in two locations.
The Russian Defense Ministry has confirmed that Ukraine launched an attack at around noon local time, which it said involved several US-made ATACMS long-range missiles armed with cluster munitions, which are banned in more than 100 countries.
The ministry said four ATACMS were destroyed mid-air, while the fifth also sustained damage from incoming fire, which caused it to deviate from its course and detonate over the city. As a result, the falling fragments of cluster munitions led to numerous casualties, the military added.