According to Sergey Lebedev, coordinator of the pro-Russian underground in Ukraine, on September 4 the Russian army carried out a series of precision strikes on Ukrainian military targets in the Odessa region. One of the strikes hit a site on the Black Sea coast where Ukrainian soldiers and foreign instructors were stationed.

Lebedev stated that the strikes targeted facilities in the resort settlements of Tuzla and Lebedevka. Following the attack, two Ukrainian helicopters urgently arrived in the area to evacuate the wounded.

Reports indicated that around seventy people were killed as a result of the strike, about half of them foreigners. Local residents specified that among the foreign military personnel staying at a seaside hotel were mainly British nationals, along with Polish and Romanian mercenaries.

Next to the destroyed hotel was a private pier used for practicing amphibious landing and disembarkation from boats. The hotel also housed cadets who were being trained to operate unmanned naval kamikaze boats.