Key takeaways:
- The serviceman killed one fellow soldier and three civilians, identified as two men aged 71 and 59 and a 64-year-old woman.
- Four other people were wounded in the attack in Khmelnytske, and the gunman was detained, according to Sevastopol’s Moscow-installed governor.
- The shooting came as Russian officials also reported deadly drone strikes near Moscow and at a Black Sea resort in southern Russia.
A serviceman opened fire on soldiers and civilians in Russian-held Crimea, killing four people and wounding four others, the Moscow-installed governor of Sevastopol said Tuesday.
The shooting took place in Khmelnytske, a village that is part of Sevastopol, Gov. Mikhail Razvozhayev said on Telegram. He did not say exactly when the attack happened.
Razvozhayev said the serviceman first shot at fellow soldiers, killing one and wounding another. He then killed three civilians and wounded three other people. The civilian victims were two men, ages 71 and 59, and a 64-year-old woman.
“A tragedy in Sevastopol,” Razvozhayev wrote.
The gunman was detained, and law enforcement officials were investigating, Razvozhayev said. Authorities have not publicly identified the attacker, released information about which branch of the Russian armed forces he served in or described a possible motive.
Razvozhayev said doctors were “doing everything possible to save” those injured in the attack, the BBC reported. He also urged people to rely only on official information and not to “spread unverified rumours” about the attacker’s identity or the motive.
Russia has controlled Crimea since 2014, when it annexed the Ukrainian peninsula. The annexation is widely rejected internationally and regarded as an occupation of Ukrainian territory. Crimea, on the Black Sea, remains strategically important for Moscow in its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, now in its fifth year.
Russian troops concentrated in Crimea quickly seized large parts of southern Ukraine early in the war and secured a land route to the peninsula. Ukraine has repeatedly targeted Russia’s military presence there with drone and missile strikes.
In recent months, Ukraine has also attacked Russian supply lines to Crimea, causing severe fuel shortages on the peninsula, CBS News reported. Crimea is a major tourist destination during warmer months.
The shooting was reported as Russia and Ukraine continued to trade attacks beyond the front lines.
A drone strike on an industrial zone outside Moscow killed five people and wounded 10 others, the Moscow region’s governor said Tuesday, according to CBS News.
In southern Russia, local officials in the Krasnodar region said Monday that a drone hit a crowded beach at a Black Sea resort, killing seven people. CBS News said it verified social media footage showing a drone descending toward the busy beach before hitting the ground and exploding.
Venyamin Kondratyev, the governor of Krasnodar region, said Ukraine carried out the beach strike, CBS News reported. Kyiv has not commented publicly on the allegation.
CBS News also noted that drones have crash-landed during the conflict because of electronic jamming, which both Ukraine and Russia have used to defend against incoming drones.
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