In a drone attack on a hotel and cafe in a region of Ukraine’s southern Kherson region where New Year’s celebrations were taking place, Russia has claimed that Ukraine killed at least 24 people, including a child.
Vladimir Saldo, the region’s newly elected governor, first made the claim in a statement on Telegram before the Russian-led ministry of foreign affairs, and senior politicians later accused Ukraine of staging a “terror attack.”
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Saldo also published images of the events that he described as the result of the attack, which Al Jazeera is unable to verify.
The images below a white sheet showed at least one person’s body.
There appeared to be bloodstains on the ground and signs of a fierce fire had erupted in the building.
In a “deliberate strike” against civilians, Saldo claimed in the statement that three Ukrainian drones had struck the Khorly, a coastal village, where the New Year’s celebrations were taking place. He claimed that numerous people had been burned alive.
Initial reports from Russia’s foreign ministry indicated that 50 people had been injured and 24 had been killed.
The ministry said in a statement that the attack was “a war crime” and that “drones deliberately targeted areas where civilians had gathered to celebrate New Year’s Eve” in advance.
In a statement on Telegram, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said that the West’s supporters in particular were to blame.
Kyiv was denounced by senior politicians, including those who speak in the parliament’s two houses.
Russia claimed ownership of four of Ukraine’s regions in 2022, a move that Kyiv and the majority of Western nations have characterized as an illegal land grab.
Moscow’s claim was not made public by Ukraine’s military, but it claimed it had overnight attacked Russia’s Ilsky-oil refinery in the Krasnodar region. The results were also being being investigated.
The military also claimed in a statement on Telegram that it had attacked the Tatarstan region’s Almetyevsk oil facility.
More than 965 kilometers (600 miles) from Ukraine’s most remote region, and even further away from Kyiv’s current-controlling territory, lies the Almetyevsk facility.
Russia releases a video of the “attack” against Putin at his residence.
Moscow made the claim on Tuesday that Ukraine had launched a long-range drone attack on one of President Vladimir Putin’s official residences in northwest Russia, which Kyiv has described as a “lie.”
A downed drone it claimed was involved in the attack was captured on video by Russia’s defense ministry on Wednesday.
A man wearing camouflage, a helmet, and a vest stood close to a shattered drone lying in snow at night in the video.
The man talks about the drone while covering his face. No location or date was provided by the man or the Defense Ministry.
The claims and video couldn’t be independently verified.
Peace talks
Kyiv has criticized the claims of an attack on Putin’s residence as a ruse to thwart ongoing peace talks, which have erupted on both sides of the Atlantic in recent weeks.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated in his New Year’s address that a peace deal was “90 percent ready,” but warned that the remaining 10%, believed to include significant sticking points like territory, would “determine the fate of peace, the fate of Ukraine and Europe, and how people will live.”
Steve Witkoff, the special envoy for Trump, reported on Wednesday that he, Marco Rubio, the secretary of state, and Jared Kushner, the son of the president, had a “productive call” with the British, French, German, and Ukrainian national security advisers to talk about the “European peace process.”
In a post on X, Witkoff wrote that “we focused on how to advance the discussions in a practical way on behalf of Trump’s] peace process, including developing effective deconflict mechanisms to help end the war and prevent it from restarting,” in a post on X.
Rustem Umerov, the head negotiator for Ukraine, confirmed that officials from both Europe and Ukraine will meet on Saturday, and that Zelenskyy will meet with European leaders the following week.
Russian attacks on Ukraine
In addition, according to regional director Oleh Kiper, Russia attacked the Odesa region overnight and launched several drone attacks against civilian infrastructure.
A drone hit an apartment on the 17th floor of a high-rise building without detonating, according to Kiper in a post on Telegram. There were no reported injuries.
According to the air force’s daily report, 176 of 205 drones targeted Ukraine overnight were downed or suppressed by air defense forces.
Source: Aljazeera
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