{"id":27614,"date":"2026-08-04T18:43:06","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T13:43:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=27614"},"modified":"2026-08-04T18:43:06","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T13:43:06","slug":"moscow-and-kyiv-trade-blame-over-drone-explosion-that-killed-7-including-3-children-on-russian-beach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=27614","title":{"rendered":"Moscow and Kyiv trade blame over drone explosion that killed 7, including 3 children, on Russian beach"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p id=\"anchor-61186a\" class=\"body-graf\">The beach was packed, many vacationers lounging near the turquoise waters when the drone slammed into the white sand and burst into a fireball. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-5bd13b\" class=\"body-graf\">Russian officials said seven people, including three children, were killed and 58 others injured by the explosion in the Black Sea resort town of Gelendzhik on Monday. The explosion was captured on video and shared on social media, and verified by NBC News.  <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-fe9732\" class=\"body-graf\">Moscow accused Ukraine of targeting civilians, which would constitute a war crime, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/world\/ukraine\/russia-blasts-southern-ukrainian-city-glide-bombs-ukrainian-drones-kil-rcna590676\" target=\"_blank\">unleashed a barrage of aerial strikes on its neighbor<\/a>. Ukraine\u2019s attacks inside Russia come as its own civilians faced <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/world\/ukraine\/russian-strikes-ukraine-kill-13-poland-scrambles-fighter-jets-rcna589964\" target=\"_blank\">deadly Russian bombardment<\/a> throughout the summer. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-2032b6\" class=\"body-graf\">Ukrainian officials did not confirm they were responsible, but they also did not deny it. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-03b803\" class=\"body-graf\">\u201cWhat happened today was a deliberate strike by the Kyiv regime against the civilian population \u2014 people who have absolutely no connection to military infrastructure,\u201d Veniamin Kondratyev, the governor of the Krasnodar region, said on his official Telegram channel. \u201cThere can be no justification for such a cynical and inhumane terrorist act targeting children.\u201d <\/p>\n<figure class=\"styles_inlineImage__FvnTh styles_medium__MEKii styles_portrait__NEQhG\" id=\"anchor-2b038c\"><picture class=\"styles_image__i32F7\" data-testid=\"picture\" data-flavor=\"fit\" data-original-height=\"3125\" data-original-width=\"2500\"><source media=\"(min-width: 1000px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_fit-560w,f_avif,q_auto:eco,dpr_2\/rockcms\/2026-08\/260804-4x5-russia-rs-adb55d.jpg 2x, https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_fit-560w,f_auto,q_auto:best\/rockcms\/2026-08\/260804-4x5-russia-rs-adb55d.jpg 1x\"\/><source media=\"(min-width: 320px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_fit-760w,f_avif,q_auto:eco,dpr_2\/rockcms\/2026-08\/260804-4x5-russia-rs-adb55d.jpg 2x, https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_fit-760w,f_auto,q_auto:best\/rockcms\/2026-08\/260804-4x5-russia-rs-adb55d.jpg 1x\"\/><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_fit-760w,f_auto,q_auto:best\/rockcms\/2026-08\/260804-4x5-russia-rs-adb55d.jpg\" alt=\"A screen grab of a drone explosion on a beach at the holiday village of Arkhipo-Osipovka, Gelendzhik resort area, in Russia on Monday.\" height=\"3125\" width=\"2500\"\/><\/picture><figcaption class=\"caption styles_caption__TCewG\" data-testid=\"caption\"><span class=\"caption__container\" data-testid=\"caption__container\">A screen grab of a drone explosion on a beach at the holiday village of Arkhipo-Osipovka, Gelendzhik resort area, in Russia on Monday.<\/span><span class=\"caption__source\" data-testid=\"caption__source\">via Reuters<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p id=\"anchor-d0d4a1\" class=\"body-graf\">The explosion comes amid a concerted Ukrainian effort to push the war\u2019s front line closer than ever to Moscow, with strikes targeting shipping vessels, oil sites, warehouses and ammunition depots in recent weeks. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-6185c3\" class=\"body-graf\">Since <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/world\/europe\/putin-critic-leaves-russia-barred-running-parliament-rcna590692\" target=\"_blank\">Russian President Vladimir Putin<\/a> launched his large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/world\/ukraine\/ukraine-military-general-fired-defense-minister-zelenskyy-war-russia-rcna589020\" target=\"_blank\">Kyiv has honed an innovative and lethal strategy<\/a> of using cheaply manufactured drones as it seeks to pressure Moscow into a peace settlement. Some hit their targets, while others are often shot down.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-7b3369\" class=\"body-graf\">Between July 24 and July 31, at least 61 people were killed and more than 320 wounded in Ukrainian shelling and drone strikes, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova <a href=\"https:\/\/t.me\/MID_Russia\/87889\" target=\"_blank\">said Friday<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-e71822\" class=\"body-graf\">After the explosion in Gelendzhik, Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council\u2019s Centre for Countering Disinformation, said: \u201cRussian air defense shot down a drone onto people lying on the beach.\u201d <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-888896\" class=\"body-graf\">\u201cIt was Putin who killed these Russians,\u201d he said in a statement. \u201cHad he not started the war and the strikes on Ukraine, they would be alive.\u201d <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-bdadc9\" class=\"body-graf\">Kovalenko also accused Putin of downplaying Ukrainian attacks on Russia, creating an \u201cillusion of peace\u201d that has made the public complacent. <\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-c3f8da\" class=\"body-graf\">\u201cHad they acknowledged the war on their own territory, people would have reacted more actively to the alert, which in some places in Russia is not even announced,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p id=\"anchor-dfef95\" class=\"body-graf\">A separate attack had also hit a warehouse in Leningrad, its regional governor, Aleksandr Drozdenko, said early Tuesday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The beach was packed, many vacationers lounging near the turquoise waters when the drone slammed into the white sand and burst into a fireball. Russian officials said seven people, including three children, were killed and 58 others injured by the explosion in the Black Sea resort town of Gelendzhik on Monday. The explosion was captured&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27615,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com\/image\/upload\/t_nbcnews-fp-1200-630,f_auto,q_auto:best\/rockcms\/2026-08\/260804-russia-rs-94335b.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}