(Reuters) -A Ukrainian drone attack on a beach in the Russian city of Kursk killed three people, including a Russian serviceman engaged in rescue operations, and injured seven, the acting governor of the region that borders Ukraine said early on Wednesday.
Alexander Khinshtein said on the Telegram messaging app that the attack had been carried out deliberately in an area frequented by families in the region.
Russia’s defence ministry said on Telegram that its air defence units destroyed 86 Ukrainian drones overnight over nine Russian regions, including 23 drones over the Kursk region.
Five of the seven injured in Kursk, including a five-year-old child, were in a serious condition in hospital.
Khinshtein said one of those killed was a member of Russia’s National Guard who had been trying to evacuate people from the scene.
“He had arrived at the beach with his comrades after people began reporting about the drone attack,” Khinshtein said. “The senior sergeant had begun to evacuate people when a second explosion occurred. Unfortunately, he did not survive.”
Reuters could not independently verify the account and there was no immediate comment from Ukrainian officials.
Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of targeting civilians in the course of the war, now well into its fourth year. Both sides deny the accusations, but thousands of civilians have been killed in the conflict, the vast majority of them Ukrainian.
Khinshtein also said a Ukrainian drone had attacked a hospital in the town of Rylsk, closer to the Ukrainian border than the city of Kursk, injuring two people, blowing out windows and setting a roof ablaze.
Ukrainian forces staged a large incursion into the Kursk region nearly a year ago. The Kremlin said earlier this year all Kyiv’s forces have since been ejected from the region, but Ukrainian officials say their troops are still carrying out operations there.
(Writing by Ron Popeski in Winnipeg and Lidia Kelly in Warsaw; Editing by Chris Reese, Jamie Freed and Saad Sayeed)
