AT least three holidaymakers have been killed in a horror double explosion after sea mines washed into popular tourist beaches in southern Ukraine.

The blasts tore through the Black Sea resort area of Zatoka at around 11.30am on Sunday, sending shockwaves through crowds of sunseekers.

Local outlet Dumskaya reports the victims – a woman and two men – were swimming when two explosive devices detonated around 50 metres from the shore.

Odesa regional chief Oleh Kiper confirmed: “All of them have been killed by explosive devices while swimming in areas prohibited for recreation.”

Police said one man died in Karolino-Buhaz, while the other man and woman were killed in Zatoka.

Both spots fall within the Karolino-Buhaz community in the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi district – areas that are officially closed to swimming due to the danger of mines drifting in from the warfront.

Footage from the scene shows dozens of shocked beachgoers lined up along the sand after the blasts, with barely anyone left in the water.

Investigators, bomb disposal experts, and rescue crews are now combing the shoreline for more devices.

Authorities have launched a criminal case under Article 115 of Ukraine’s penal code, marking it as an “accident” pending further findings.

Despite repeated warnings, only two bathing spots in the Odesa region are officially open – the central city beach in Chornomorsk and one in Primorske, Izmail district.

The tragedy comes just two months after two men were killed by a mine in Zatoka on June 7.

Grim byproduct of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has been turning the Black Sea into a floating minefield.

Since 2022, both Ukrainian and Russian forces have laid sea mines to defend ports, block naval routes, and deter enemy landings.

But storms, strong currents, and shifting tides have torn many loose from their original positions, sending them drifting for miles before slamming into unsuspecting beaches.

Odesa’s coastline – once one of Ukraine’s busiest holiday hotspots – has been particularly vulnerable, as mines deployed near key shipping lanes often end up in the shallow waters where tourists swim.

Meanwhile, Russia is allegedly running a grotesque online “slave catalogue” of abducted Ukrainian children in occupied territory.

The profiles can be searched by hair colour, eye colour and even “personality” in the latest twisted move by Mad Vlad Putin’s regime.

According to the NGO Save Ukraine, it features almost 300 children labelled as “orphans” or “left without parental care”.

But campaigners insist many were forcibly taken from their families, re-registered under Russian documents and are now being “matched” with Russian families as if they were animals in a pet shop.

According to The Times, the depraved search tool reportedly allows users to filter children by age, gender, health and physical traits – even by whether they are “calm” or “active”.

Kyiv says the catalogue is just the latest stage in Moscow’s mass child-snatching campaign — a programme that Ukrainian officials claim has seen tens of thousands of minors abducted since Putin’s full-scale invasion in 2022.