Drone Attack on Russian Resort: Seven Dead
Russian authorities accuse Ukraine of deliberately targeting civilians on a beach in Gelendzhik, while Kyiv has not commented on the incident.
Russian authorities accuse Ukraine of deliberately targeting civilians on a beach in Gelendzhik, while Kyiv has not commented on the incident.
Seven people, including three children, were killed on Sunday, August 3, 2026, when a drone struck a busy beach in the Russian resort town of Gelendzhik on the Black Sea. According to reports from Russian authorities, at least 40 people were injured in the attack, which Moscow blames on Ukraine.
Veniamin Kondratyev, the governor of the Krasnodar region, called the event a tragedy and directly accused Kyiv. "What happened today was a deliberate attack by the Kyiv regime on the civilian population, which has nothing to do with military infrastructure," Kondratyev said via Telegram, as reported by Channel News Asia.
Footage posted on social media, verified by Reuters, shows the moment a drone hits the beach in the town of Arkhipo-Osipovka, part of the wider Gelendzhik area, with a loud explosion while swimmers were in the water and on the shore. There is a discrepancy in reports regarding the exact death toll: while Euronews reports six deaths, the Sydney Morning Herald and Channel News Asia report seven casualties.
Russia's Ministry of Health said that 21 people, including three children, were taken to hospital, with nine in serious condition. A special emergency medical team was dispatched to the site of the explosion.
In his earlier statement, Governor Kondratyev mentioned "falling drone fragments," which typically suggests that Russian air defense had previously shot down the aircraft. It is unclear whether Russia used electronic jamming or other methods to alter the drone's trajectory before it hit the beach.
Some reports suggest the drone may have originally been aimed at the Russian naval base in Novorossiysk, about 40 kilometers from the attack site. Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, accused Ukraine of resorting to terrorism, according to Russian state agency TASS.
The Ukrainian military has not commented on the incident. Both Kyiv and Moscow claim they do not deliberately target civilians in the war that Russia began in 2022. Last month, Russia accused Ukrainian forces of attacking a camp in a part of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region under Russian control, killing 11 people, including four children.
In recent months, Ukraine has intensified long-range strikes deep into Russian territory, mainly targeting oil refineries and e-commerce warehouses, in a campaign it says aims to make Russians feel the cost of the war.
