by Kirill Velesov
[REGNUM] People relaxing on the beach with umbrellas, books, air mattresses and other attributes of a peaceful beach holiday throw their things and try to shield their children - such footage from Sevastopol on June 23 was published by local residents and the media.
The governor of the region, Mikhail Razvozhaev, confirmed the attack of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Sevastopol: first it became known about the work of air defense, 12 wounded in the Uchkuevka area, two wounded in Lyubimovka and two dead, including a two-year-old child.
Later it became known that the Ukrainian Armed Forces strike took the lives of two children and one adult. A total of 124 people were injured.
“The criminal Kiev regime, which has renounced its faith, launched a ballistic missile attack on Sevastopol with cluster munitions in broad daylight. The number of wounded increased to almost 100 people. The entire healthcare system has been mobilized, doctors and medical staff are at work. The operating rooms are deployed. The victims are provided with all necessary medical care.
Today, on the bright holiday of Trinity, we have great grief. The enemy struck on the sly, at a time when civilians were returning from service, or had already gone to the sea with their children,” Razvozhaev wrote in his Telegram channel.
Rescuers and doctors, as well as Sevastopol prosecutor Andrey Shevtsov, quickly arrived at the scene of the tragedy. The governor went to the hospital to see the victims.
By this time, according to the Ministry of Health, the number of victims exceeded 120 people.
The Russian Ministry of Defense commented on the strike:
“At around 12.15, the Kyiv regime carried out a terrorist attack on the civilian infrastructure of the city of Sevastopol with US-supplied ATACMS operational-tactical missiles equipped with cluster warheads.
While repelling a terrorist attack by air defense forces on duty, four American ATACMS missiles were shot down. Another missile, as a result of the impact of air defense systems at the final stage, deviated from the flight path with the warhead exploding in the air over the city territory,” the military department reported.
The American publication Associated Press wrote about the use of ATACMS missiles on Russian territory the day before. AP journalists argued that allowing the Ukrainian Armed Forces to use American weapons on Russian territory “to carry out limited strikes” had already yielded results on the northeastern front and improved the position of the Ukrainian army.
However, Ukrainian military commanders, according to the AP, are demanding the lifting of restrictions on the use of long-range missiles such as ATACMS.
“Commanders say that without the ability to use long-range guided missiles such as ATACMS, their hands are tied,” the author of the material noted.
Despite the fact that back on June 21, Pentagon press secretary Patrick Ryder confirmed that Washington still had not given such permission, and the Ukrainian Armed Forces could use ATACMS exclusively in areas bordering the Kharkov region, the attack on Crimea was dealt by this type of weapon.
“A 3-year-old and a 9-year-old girl died today in Sevastopol on the beach. There is one elderly woman with them. They were killed by American ATACMS missiles. American hands fired. Today America killed our children again,” writes Marina Akhmedova, editor-in-chief of IA Regnum, in her telegram channel.
In early June, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that the Ukrainian Armed Forces cannot launch attacks with ATACMS missiles on their own. Attacks, he said, occur exclusively in close cooperation with the United States, since they require American satellite reconnaissance, on the basis of which a flight mission is formed, introduced into the missile system, and only after that a strike is delivered.
Putin also stated that in response to the supply of high-precision weapons to Ukraine for attacks on Russian territory, the Russian Federation may begin to supply weapons of the same class to those regions of the world “where attacks will be carried out on sensitive targets of those countries that do this against Russia.”
According to the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova, June 23 - the day of the Orthodox Trinity - was not chosen by chance for the attack on Sevastopol.
“We understand perfectly well what lies within the essence of the Kyiv regime, this is a deep-seated hatred of everything connected with Russia, with Russian, Russian culture. And, of course, Orthodoxy and Christianity in general. These are literally ritual, and I think that’s what they should be called, the crimes they commit coincide with major holidays,” Zakharova said on the Rossiya 24 TV channel.
In Kyiv, they did not comment on the shelling of Sevastopol, but the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine confirmed the attack on the Belgorod region. In the border town of Grayvoron, according to information from Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, a person also died today.
The strikes on the Belgorod region were carried out by three kamikaze drones: a civilian died at the scene of the tragedy from his wounds before the ambulance arrived, and three more people were injured.