Eyewitnesses of the shelling at Uchkuevka beach in Crimea's Sevastopol discussed the moment missiles hit the area, in footage taken on Sunday.
'I went out on the balcony to see what was going on. There was smoke. Everything went up in smoke, people were screaming," said Oksana Politova, claimed that fire erupted in the forest following the attack.
"People were shouting, 'It’s on fire, it’s on fire'. People from all the neighbouring houses and the apartment complex ran to extinguish the fire with everything they had - with 5-litre, 20-litre bottles and buckets," she added.
Footage shows a scorched area of the woodland.
Another eyewitness, Irina Frolova, highlighted the efforts of beachgoers to assist in moving the wounded to safety alongside emergency services.
"Everybody panicked, but they somehow managed to pull themselves together to help evacuate the wounded. They just gathered together, loaded them into cars. The men helped to carry the wounded because they were heavy, some of them were hard just to lift. The female doctors came, they wouldn't have been able to carry some of them to the cars. And [the wounded] were loaded [in ambulances] one by one," she said.
Earlier, the Russian Defence Ministry reported that a "terrorist missile attack was carried out on the city of Sevastopol by five American ATACMS tactical missiles equipped with cluster warheads."
The Ministry noted that four missiles were intercepted by air defence system, while “the explosion of the fragmentation warhead of the fifth missile in the air led to numerous casualties among civilians in Sevastopol,” when rocket fragments struck Uchkuevka beach.
The Defence Ministry attributed the strike to "Washington, which supplied these weapons to Ukraine, as well as the Kiev regime, from whose territory this attack was launched", adding that there would be response.
Media reports citing the assistant to the head of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation Alexei Kuznetsov later reported that 124 people had been wounded in the attack, including 27 children.
Governor of Sevastopol Mikhail Razvozzhayev reported that five people had been killed, including three children. The governor also announced that Monday, June 24 has been declared a day of mourning in Sevastopol. Russia’s Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova reported via social media that five children were in serious condition following the attack.
The Investigative Committee of Russia has opened a criminal case into a possible 'terrorist act', with investigators at the scene.
At the time of publication, the Ukrainian side had not commented on the shelling of Sevastopol.
Moscow launched a military offensive in Ukraine in late February 2022 after recognising the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR), claiming that Kiev had failed to guarantee their special status under the 2014 Minsk Agreements, and urging Ukraine to declare itself officially neutral and give assurances that it would never join NATO.
Kiev denounced the Russian action as an invasion. Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky imposed martial law throughout the country, announcing a general mobilisation, while the EU and the US imposed several rounds of sanctions on Moscow.
'Everything went up in smoke, people were screaming' - Eyewitnesses of Sevastopol beach shelling *EXCLUSIVE*
Eyewitnesses of the shelling at Uchkuevka beach in Crimea's Sevastopol discussed the moment missiles hit the area, in footage taken on Sunday.
'I went out on the balcony to see what was going on. There was smoke. Everything went up in smoke, people were screaming," said Oksana Politova, claimed that fire erupted in the forest following the attack.
"People were shouting, 'It’s on fire, it’s on fire'. People from all the neighbouring houses and the apartment complex ran to extinguish the fire with everything they had - with 5-litre, 20-litre bottles and buckets," she added.
Footage shows a scorched area of the woodland.
Another eyewitness, Irina Frolova, highlighted the efforts of beachgoers to assist in moving the wounded to safety alongside emergency services.
"Everybody panicked, but they somehow managed to pull themselves together to help evacuate the wounded. They just gathered together, loaded them into cars. The men helped to carry the wounded because they were heavy, some of them were hard just to lift. The female doctors came, they wouldn't have been able to carry some of them to the cars. And [the wounded] were loaded [in ambulances] one by one," she said.
Earlier, the Russian Defence Ministry reported that a "terrorist missile attack was carried out on the city of Sevastopol by five American ATACMS tactical missiles equipped with cluster warheads."
The Ministry noted that four missiles were intercepted by air defence system, while “the explosion of the fragmentation warhead of the fifth missile in the air led to numerous casualties among civilians in Sevastopol,” when rocket fragments struck Uchkuevka beach.
The Defence Ministry attributed the strike to "Washington, which supplied these weapons to Ukraine, as well as the Kiev regime, from whose territory this attack was launched", adding that there would be response.
Media reports citing the assistant to the head of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation Alexei Kuznetsov later reported that 124 people had been wounded in the attack, including 27 children.
Governor of Sevastopol Mikhail Razvozzhayev reported that five people had been killed, including three children. The governor also announced that Monday, June 24 has been declared a day of mourning in Sevastopol. Russia’s Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova reported via social media that five children were in serious condition following the attack.
The Investigative Committee of Russia has opened a criminal case into a possible 'terrorist act', with investigators at the scene.
At the time of publication, the Ukrainian side had not commented on the shelling of Sevastopol.
Moscow launched a military offensive in Ukraine in late February 2022 after recognising the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR), claiming that Kiev had failed to guarantee their special status under the 2014 Minsk Agreements, and urging Ukraine to declare itself officially neutral and give assurances that it would never join NATO.
Kiev denounced the Russian action as an invasion. Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky imposed martial law throughout the country, announcing a general mobilisation, while the EU and the US imposed several rounds of sanctions on Moscow.
Eyewitnesses of the shelling at Uchkuevka beach in Crimea's Sevastopol discussed the moment missiles hit the area, in footage taken on Sunday.
'I went out on the balcony to see what was going on. There was smoke. Everything went up in smoke, people were screaming," said Oksana Politova, claimed that fire erupted in the forest following the attack.
"People were shouting, 'It’s on fire, it’s on fire'. People from all the neighbouring houses and the apartment complex ran to extinguish the fire with everything they had - with 5-litre, 20-litre bottles and buckets," she added.
Footage shows a scorched area of the woodland.
Another eyewitness, Irina Frolova, highlighted the efforts of beachgoers to assist in moving the wounded to safety alongside emergency services.
"Everybody panicked, but they somehow managed to pull themselves together to help evacuate the wounded. They just gathered together, loaded them into cars. The men helped to carry the wounded because they were heavy, some of them were hard just to lift. The female doctors came, they wouldn't have been able to carry some of them to the cars. And [the wounded] were loaded [in ambulances] one by one," she said.
Earlier, the Russian Defence Ministry reported that a "terrorist missile attack was carried out on the city of Sevastopol by five American ATACMS tactical missiles equipped with cluster warheads."
The Ministry noted that four missiles were intercepted by air defence system, while “the explosion of the fragmentation warhead of the fifth missile in the air led to numerous casualties among civilians in Sevastopol,” when rocket fragments struck Uchkuevka beach.
The Defence Ministry attributed the strike to "Washington, which supplied these weapons to Ukraine, as well as the Kiev regime, from whose territory this attack was launched", adding that there would be response.
Media reports citing the assistant to the head of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation Alexei Kuznetsov later reported that 124 people had been wounded in the attack, including 27 children.
Governor of Sevastopol Mikhail Razvozzhayev reported that five people had been killed, including three children. The governor also announced that Monday, June 24 has been declared a day of mourning in Sevastopol. Russia’s Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova reported via social media that five children were in serious condition following the attack.
The Investigative Committee of Russia has opened a criminal case into a possible 'terrorist act', with investigators at the scene.
At the time of publication, the Ukrainian side had not commented on the shelling of Sevastopol.
Moscow launched a military offensive in Ukraine in late February 2022 after recognising the independence of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR), claiming that Kiev had failed to guarantee their special status under the 2014 Minsk Agreements, and urging Ukraine to declare itself officially neutral and give assurances that it would never join NATO.
Kiev denounced the Russian action as an invasion. Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky imposed martial law throughout the country, announcing a general mobilisation, while the EU and the US imposed several rounds of sanctions on Moscow.