According to Russian officials, the latest wave of drone attacks has killed a total of 15 people across the Krasnodar region, Russia-annexed Crimea and the Belgorod region.
Krasnodar Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said the strike hit the popular Black Sea resort settlement. Russian authorities blamed Ukraine for the attack, describing it as a "terrorist act."
Videos circulating on social media appeared to show the strike near Arkhipo-Osipovka's beach.
Authorities in the Belgorod region say the intensity of Ukrainian drone attacks has more than doubled over the past two months.
Ukrainian authorities have not yet publicly commented on the incident.
The strike came amid a sharp increase in the number of Ukrainian drone attacks targeting Russian territory. Overnight into Aug. 3, Russia's Defence Ministry said it had intercepted 131 drones over 11 Russian regions, Russia-annexed Crimea and the Black Sea. Krasnodar region was again among the areas targeted.
Southern Russia has faced particularly intense drone attacks in recent weeks. Overnight into July 27, the Defence Ministry reported intercepting 276 drones. The deadliest consequences were recorded in Rostov-on-Don, where a drone struck an apartment building, killing five people, including a child, and injuring eight others. Fires also broke out at an industrial facility, warehouses and private homes.
At the same time, Ukraine launched a series of strikes targeting the logistics infrastructure of Russia's largest online marketplace, Wildberries. On July 18, drones hit the company's warehouses in Kotovsk, in the Tambov region, and Elektrostal, in the Moscow region. Eight employees were killed and dozens of people were injured. The attacks were followed by strikes on Wildberries facilities in Krasnodar and Nevinnomyssk, where, according to Russian authorities, eight people were injured, as well as warehouses near St. Petersburg, in Tver and in Russia-annexed Simferopol.
By July 24, at least nine Wildberries facilities had reportedly been targeted. According to calculations by the Russian daily Kommersant, by July 23 the attacks had affected around 802,000 square metres — approximately 14% of the company's warehouse capacity — with damaged property valued at about 60 billion roubles ($750 million). A more recent estimate by Forbes Russia is substantially higher, putting potential losses for merchants from goods destroyed in the warehouses at between 215 billion and 280 billion roubles.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has previously acknowledged strikes on Wildberries logistics centres, saying they were being used to supply components for Russian drone production. The Kremlin denies the allegation.
The attack near Gelendzhik was one of the deadliest drone strikes in southern Russia in recent weeks. Together with the strike on Rostov-on-Don, the two incidents have killed at least 11 people, according to Russian authorities.
