8-year-old child killed by buried landmine on Mariupol beach in Ukraine

An eight-year-old boy, and an adult, were reportedly killed on a beach in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol when a buried landmine exploded.

According to reports in the Ukrainian press this Sunday, June 5, two civilians – one of them an eight-year-old child – have been killed by a buried mine that exploded on a beach in the port city of Mariupol last Friday, June 3. After weeks of placing the city under siege, Russian forces finally took control.

Petro Andriushchenko, an advisor to the mayor of Mariupol reported the incident on Telegram. “Mariupol: again sad news. We have received confirmation from the occupation authorities’ own sources that two people have been killed by a mine explosion on Peshcani beach on Friday, June 3. One of the deceased was an eight-year-old boy”, he wrote.

The beach where the explosion happened is next to the port of Mariupol and had allegedly been demined by Russian forces. “Despite the tragedy, the occupation authorities and propagandists continue to invite people to go to the beach. Beautiful photos and videos are more important than people’s lives”. added Andriushchenko, according to 20minutos.es.

Authorities in Kyiv also reported that three other civilians had died on Sunday, June 5, in the town of Lazurny, in the Kherson region. Similarly, their deaths were due to the explosion of a mine placed by Russian forces on another of the beaches in the area.

Oleksandr Senkevich, the mayor of Mikolaiv, reported this Sunday that at least three people had died and four more were seriously injured due to a Russian bombardment of the Korabelni neighbourhood of the city.

Mikolaiv is in the eastern part of the Black Sea coast still controlled by Ukrainian forces after the Russian offensive in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions and eastwards from the Crimean peninsula.