Drones Hit Novorossiysk: Four Dead, a Child Among Them, and the Figure Comes From One Side Only

Four dead, one of them a child, and another 29 injured. That is the toll from the overnight drone attack on Novorossiysk, Russia's Black Sea port, according to the governor of Krasnodar Krai.

"Last night our troops repelled a mass attack by enemy drones in the region. The main strike was on Novorossiysk. Unfortunately, four people were killed, including one child," the governor said. Three of the injured are in a serious condition. Residential buildings were damaged, as were the buildings of an Orthodox church and a kindergarten.

The operational headquarters said earlier that debris from downed drones had fallen near a private house and on the grounds of one enterprise, after which a fire broke out. An investigation into the consequences is under way.

A port, not a battlefield

Novorossiysk is not the front. It is Russia's largest Black Sea port, the point through which part of Russia's oil leaves the country - and that is exactly why it is a target. But the statement does not talk about terminals and pipelines. It talks about residential buildings, a kindergarten, a church. If that is accurate, then the precision advertised by every side in this war has once again turned out to be theory.

Here it pays to be careful with the numbers. This is a statement from one side, about an attack by the other, with no independent verification on the ground. The same applies in reverse - both Kyiv and Moscow describe the other side's casualties in far more detail than their own. When the death toll comes exclusively from the party with an interest in it, that number should be reported, but not treated as final.

What needs no verification is the geography. The Black Sea is a closed sea with a limited number of exits, and since the war began every port on it is a potential target. The Balkans sit on the same shore - Bulgaria and Romania open onto the same water. How many times does a drone have to fall near someone else's doorstep before somebody works out how narrow this sea is?