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Russian media posted a video showing a series of submunitions, believed to be from Ukraine's ATACMS missile, falling on a crowded beach in Crimea.
Telegram channel Sevastopol_kp on June 25 posted a video taken from a surveillance camera at a beach in the Crimean peninsula, recording the moment submunitions continuously fell and exploded in a place where many people were swimming and playing.
In a video reposted by many Russian news agencies, explosions in the sky caused people on the beach to run away, some stumbling while trying to escape. A submunition exploded right next to the person holding the yellow buoy, but this person continued to run, seemingly unhurt.
These are believed to be sub-munitions from the ATACMS tactical ballistic missile launched by Ukraine into Crimea on June 23, after the parent projectile was intercepted in the air. The following segment of the video, shot with a surveillance camera from a different angle, shows a man pulling the child to the ground and shielding him.
The Russian Ministry of Defense previously said that on June 23, Ukrainian forces launched five ATACMS tactical ballistic missiles carrying cluster warheads into the port city of Sevastopol in Crimea. Four were shot down by Russian air defense, but "the explosion from the fragmentation warhead of the fifth missile caused many civilian casualties." Crimean officials later said the incident killed five people, including two children, and injured more than 150 people.
Russia claimed that the US was responsible for the attack, not only providing ATACMS missiles for Ukraine to use in the raid, but also directly setting the flight coordinates of the projectiles. "The direct involvement of the US has caused Russian civilians to die, which cannot help but suffer the consequences," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov emphasized.
ATACMS ballistic missiles fire in a photo posted in March 2023. Photo: USAASC
Russia also summoned the US ambassador to express protest, while Vice Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev warned that the US and Ukraine would "burn in hell" for causing the attack in Crimea.
In response, Pentagon spokesman Charlie Dietz affirmed that the US was not involved in the incident, because Ukraine "chosen its own targets" when conducting military operations. A White House spokesman emphasized that any civilian casualties would be "tragic".
Meanwhile, Mykhailo Podolyak, senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, hinted that the Crimean peninsula is a legitimate military target. "Crimea is a large military camp and warehouse. There are hundreds of military targets here that Russia is trying to hide and disguise," he said.
The US last year transferred to Ukraine an unknown number of M39 version ATACMS missiles carrying cluster warheads. It has a range of 165 km, the warhead contains 950 M74 submunitions, and is equipped with an inertial guidance system.
When detonated, the missile disperses submunitions over an area of nearly 110 square kilometers, which can cause widespread damage to people and vehicles. Russia has repeatedly criticized the US for transferring cluster munitions to Ukraine.
In March, Washington transferred to Kiev a variant of the ATACMS with a longer range of 300 km, but it is not clear whether it is the cluster munition version or a single warhead.
