Four dead in ATACMS attack on Crimea – Russia blames “Washington”

According to official reports, four people, including two children, were killed in a rocket attack in the port city of Sevastopol on the Crimean peninsula annexed by Russia.

They were killed by falling debris when Ukrainian missiles were intercepted over the city of Sevastopol on the Crimean peninsula, said the city’s Moscow-appointed governor, Mikhail Razvozhaev. According to the governor, 151 people were also injured and 82 were hospitalized.

The death toll was revised downwards on Monday night. Initially it was said that five people had been killed, including three children.

“The responsibility for the deliberate missile attack on civilians in Sevastopol lies primarily with Washington, which supplied the weapons to Ukraine,” the Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday. Kiev used US-made ATACMS missiles in its attack on the Black Sea city.

According to the Defense Ministry in Moscow, Ukraine fired five ATACMS missiles. Four of them were intercepted. “Another missile deviated from its course due to the actions of the air defense and exploded over the city.”

Many of the victims were said to have been on Uchkuyevka beach in the north of Sevastopol when the rocket debris fell. There are also pictures of a private house burning in the district. All medical facilities have been mobilized to care for the injured, wrote the governor of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvoszhayev.

The flight data for the ATACMS missiles used were entered “by US specialists based on data from US satellite reconnaissance,” the Russian Defense Ministry said. “Such actions will not go unanswered,” it continued. The Russian Investigative Committee announced that it had launched an investigation into a “terrorist act.”

Neither the US nor Ukraine initially commented on the missile attack on Sevastopol.

Sevastopol is the main port of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. The Belbek military airfield is also located in the city. Russia uses both the fleet and the airport intensively in its war against Ukraine. Therefore, Ukraine regularly attacks both facilities.

Meanwhile, according to the governor of the region of the same name, one person was killed and ten others injured in Russian attacks on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. There were attacks on civilian infrastructure, writes Oleh Synehubow on the Telegram short message service. Glide bombs were apparently used. Two teenagers were among the victims.