The US-made long-range ATACMS missiles supplied by the Joe Biden Administration from hell to Kiev may not be the game changer they expected, but it sure turned the Day of the Holy Trinity holiday into a bloody tragedy on a Crimean beach.
Russia immediately stated that the US was responsible for the attack with five missiles that killed four people, including two children, and injured 151 more.
Reuters reported:
“The Russian Defense Ministry said four of the U.S.-delivered Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles, equipped with cluster warheads, were shot down by air Defense systems and the ammunition of a fifth had detonated in mid-air.
Footage on Russian state television showed people running from a beach and some people being carried off on sun loungers.”
Watch: US ATACMS Cluster munitions strike Russian Civillians on a beach near Sevastapol., A US recon drone had scouted the area. 5 are dead, including children, 124 people have been reported injured five of them children who are in intensive care. US weapon, US Intel, Russian Dead. (Chay Bowes at X)
US ATACMS Cluster munitions strike Russian Civillians on a beach near Sevastapol
A US recon drone had scouted the area.
5 are dead, including children, 124 people have been reported injured five of them children who are in intensive care.
US weapon, US Intel, Russian Dead. pic.twitter.com/z0rBbqrE8q
— Chay Bowes (@BowesChay) June 23, 2024
Missile fragments fell just after noon on a north-side beach in Sevastopol where many people enjoyed the holiday. The incident naturally generated a furious reaction among Russian public figures.
“The [Russian] Defense ministry said U.S. specialists had set the missiles’ flight coordinates on the basis of information from U.S. spy satellites, meaning Washington was directly responsible.
‘Responsibility for the deliberate missile attack on the civilians of Sevastopol is borne above all by Washington, which supplied these weapons to Ukraine, and by the Kyiv regime, from whose territory this strike was carried out’, the ministry said.”
This should not be happening.
Imagine if Russia using a Russian satellite, fired cluster munitions on a Florida beach.
The only border our American military should be defending is our own border and the constitution mandates the federal government to defend the states. https://t.co/uTWTDrTAOy
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (@RepMTG) June 23, 2024
The death toll is estimated at this time at four, with 144 injured. Specialist doctors have been flown in from other parts of Russia.
“Russia will respond to Sunday’s attack, the Defense Ministry said, without elaborating. The Kremlin said Putin had been ‘in constant contact with the military’ since the attack.”
While showering civilian beachgoers is meaningless militarily, the same cannot be said of the relentless Russian campaign of missile and drone attacks against Ukrainian power plants and energy grid.
This weekend saw the eight massive attack leading to the largest power outages since the start of the war – and things may be about to worsen considerably.
The Guardian reported:
“Ukrainians are having to cope with widespread emergency blackouts as Russia continues to pound critical infrastructure.
In recent months, Moscow has intensified its attacks on Ukraine’s energy grid. On Friday night, energy facilities came under a “massive attack”, Ukraine’s energy ministry said. Several workers were injured as a result of shelling at one of the facilities.”
Ukrainian energy infrastructure burning up after a Russian strike. pic.twitter.com/6XuMlqxTIH
— ayden (@squatsons) June 23, 2024
“Ukraine began implementing rolling blackouts on 15 May, disconnecting entire districts of the capital from the power grid to save energy.”
Zelensky took the opportunity to ask for Patriot air defense systems, sped-up training of F-16 pilots, and long-range weapons.
Politico reported:
“In recent months, Russia has switched tactics from targeting electricity substations, which Ukraine had become adept at quickly repairing, to trying to flatten entire power stations.
That’s destroyed a significant share of power generation in several Ukrainian regions, rendering the country — once a net exporter of electricity — dependent on the EU to keep the lights on. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky recently said Moscow had destroyed half of his country’s electricity-generating capacity since it began pummeling its energy facilities in late March.”
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