Crimea Video Shows Russian Tourists Flee Beach as ATACMS Bomblets Rain Down

Video footage of a missile strike on a Crimean beach filled with tourists has surfaced on social media.

The video shows a beach in Sevastopol, Crimea, which was struck by a series of explosions on June 23. The footage, captured by a security camera, shows hundreds of people beginning to run away from the water, before the impact of cluster warheads starts.

In the video, the impact of M74 submunitions, thought to be part of a MGM-140 ATACMS missile, starts throwing up water in the ocean as tourists from Russia flee towards the shore. Several clusters hit the beach, resulting in explosions across the sand and in nearby buildings. Russian officials said that the incident resulted in "numerous casualties" among civilians in Crimea, with four people killed and and over 100 injured.

The event was caused by Russian air defenses shooting down a series of cluster warhead missiles, one of which altered course as a result. The Russian ministry of defense said that four out of the five missiles launched were shot down, adding: "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."

"The detonation of the fragmentation warhead of the fifth American missile in the air led to numerous casualties among civilians in Sevastopol."

Newsweek reached out to the Russian defense ministry for comment via email.

Russia has blamed the attack on the United States. It claimed that the ATACMS missiles used in the strike had been supplied and programmed by Americans, with a Kremlin spokesperson saying: "The involvement of the United States, the direct involvement, as a result of which Russian civilians are killed, cannot be without consequences."

A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department denied the accusations, saying that the claims were "ridiculous and hyperbolic."

The U.S. supplies weapons to Ukraine in the ongoing war with Russia, and recognizes Crimea as part of Ukraine despite Russia's annexation. Ukraine has previously outlined plans to to use long-range weapons supplied by America in Crimea, specifically to target infrastructure supporting the Russian invasion.

The Crimean peninsula has been a focal point for the war, with Ukraine frequently using advanced technology to target Russian supply lines. Earlier this month, Ukrainian intelligence released footage of new naval kamikaze drones being used to destroy Russian ships on the peninsula's coast.

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