Drone Explosion Rocks Black Sea Resort, Seven Dead
Conflicting reports emerge on casualties and warnings as Moscow alleges deliberate Ukrainian attack near Putin's palace.
Image: Eddie Pollard / AI
Carla Rooney
A drone exploded at a beach resort near a Black Sea Palace, killing seven people.
Russian officials confirmed at least seven fatalities, including three children, in the Black Sea incident. Forty people sustained injuries; twenty-one required hospitalisation.
The explosion ripped through a crowded beach where temperatures reached 29C. Air defence machine gunners were active during the incident.
Moscow claims this constituted a deliberate Ukrainian attack on civilians. A Ukrainian source, however, suggests the hit may have targeted a 'private resort' for Russian engineers from Mashinostroenie Research and Production Association.
The drone's actual target remains unclear. Vladimir Putin’s high-security palace is located seventeen miles along the coastline.
Beachgoers and Russian tourists claimed no warning sirens sounded before the Black Sea incident. Mayor Alexey Bogodistov announced a drone threat at 8:34 am, cancelling it just ten minutes later.
Elsewhere, an explosion occurred near the entrance to an Italian restaurant in Moscow on Saturday evening. This blast killed five people and injured nineteen others.
A security guard prevented a woman with an improvised explosive device from entering the restaurant before it detonated. Evidence of an explosion, including a shattered window and pock-marked walls, was visible at the scene.
On Saturday night, heavily armed police and emergency vehicles surrounded the restaurant. The police cordon has since lifted outside the Balzi Rossi Italian restaurant on Kudrinskaya Square, and investigators have left the scene.
This Moscow restaurant explosion received minimal coverage on Russian TV over the weekend.