{"id":7189,"date":"2026-01-01T17:18:47","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T17:18:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/?p=7189"},"modified":"2026-01-01T17:18:47","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T17:18:47","slug":"russia-claims-ukrainian-drone-attack-killed-24-people-in-kherson-russia-ukraine-war-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/?p=7189","title":{"rendered":"Russia claims Ukrainian drone attack killed 24 people in Kherson | Russia-Ukraine war News"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Russia has accused Ukraine of killing at least 24 people, including a child, in a drone attack on a hotel and cafe where New Year celebrations were taking place in a Russian-controlled part of Ukraine\u2019s southern Kherson region.<\/p>\n

Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-installed governor of the region, first made the claim in a statement on Telegram before Russia\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and senior politicians later accused \u2060Ukraine of carrying out \u201ca terrorist attack\u201d.<\/p>\n

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list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n

Saldo also published photos of what he wrote was the aftermath of the attack, which Al Jazeera has not been able to verify.<\/p>\n

At least one person\u2019s body was visible in the images beneath a white sheet.<\/p>\n

The building showed signs that a fierce fire had raged, and there were what appeared to be bloodstains on the ground.<\/p>\n

In the statement, \u200bSaldo said three Ukrainian drones had struck the site of New Year \u200ccelebrations in Khorly, a coastal village, in what he said was a \u201cdeliberate strike\u201d against civilians. He said many people were burned alive.<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s Foreign Ministry said initial information indicated that 24 people had been killed, and that 50 people had been injured.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is \u200cno doubt that the attack was planned in advance, with \u2060drones deliberately targeting areas where civilians had gathered to celebrate New Year\u2019s Eve,\u201d the ministry said in a statement, calling the attack \u201ca war crime\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Flames
Flames and smoke rise from a fire following what Russian-installed authorities described as an overnight Ukrainian drone attack on a hotel and cafe [Handout\/Governor of Kherson on Telegram via Reuters]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement on Telegram that \u200cUkraine\u2019s backers in the West were ultimately to blame.<\/p>\n

Senior politicians, including the speakers of both houses of Russia\u2019s parliament, condemned Kyiv.<\/p>\n

Kherson is one of the four regions in Ukraine \u200dthat Russia<\/a> claimed as its own in 2022, a move Kyiv and most Western countries denounced as an illegal land grab.<\/p>\n

Ukraine\u2019s \u200dmilitary \u200ddid not comment on Moscow\u2019s claim, but it said it had hit Russia\u2019s Ilsky \u2060oil refinery in \u200bthe Krasnodar region overnight, \u200dadding that the results of the attack \u200dwere still \u2060being confirmed.<\/p>\n

In a statement on Telegram, the military also said it hit the \u200bAlmetyevsk \u200coil facility in Russia\u2019s Tatarstan region.<\/p>\n

The Almetyevsk facility is \u200cmore than 965km (600 \u200cmiles) from \u2060the nearest part of Ukraine, and even further \u200cfrom the nearest territory currently controlled by \u200dKyiv.<\/p>\n

Russia releases video of \u2018attack\u2019 on Putin\u2019s residence<\/h2>\n

On Tuesday, Moscow claimed that Ukraine launched a long-range drone attack against one of President Vladimir Putin\u2019s<\/a> official residences in northwestern Russia, which Kyiv has denounced as a \u201clie\u201d.<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s Defence Ministry released a video on Wednesday of a downed drone it said was involved in the attack.<\/p>\n

The night-time clip showed a man in camouflage, a helmet and a Kevlar vest standing near a damaged drone lying in snow.<\/p>\n

The man, with his face covered, talks about the drone. Neither the man nor the Defence Ministry provided any location or date.<\/p>\n

The video and claims could not be independently verified.<\/p>\n

Peace talks<\/h2>\n

Kyiv has called the allegations of an attack on Putin\u2019s residence a ruse to derail ongoing peace negotiations, which have ramped up in recent weeks on both sides of the Atlantic.<\/p>\n

In his New Year\u2019s address, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a peace deal was \u201c90 percent ready\u201d but warned that the remaining 10 percent, believed to include key sticking points such as territory, would \u201cdetermine the fate of peace, the fate of Ukraine and Europe, how people will live\u201d.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s special envoy Steve Witkoff said on Wednesday that he, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump\u2019s son-in-law Jared Kushner had had a \u201cproductive call\u201d with the national security advisers of the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Ukraine to discuss the \u201cEuropean peace process\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe focused on how to move the discussions forward in a practical way on behalf of [Trump\u2019s] peace process, including strengthening security guarantees and developing effective deconfliction mechanisms to help end the war and ensure it does not restart,\u201d Witkoff said in a post on X.<\/p>\n

Lead Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov also reaffirmed that European and Ukrainian officials plan to meet on Saturday, while Zelenskyy is due to hold talks next week with European leaders.<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s attacks on Ukraine<\/h2>\n

Elsewhere in Ukraine, Russia attacked the Odesa region overnight, targeting civilian infrastructure in several waves of drone attacks, according to regional head Oleh Kiper.<\/p>\n

In a post on Telegram, Kiper said a two-storey residential building was damaged and that a drone hit an apartment on the 17th floor of a high-rise building without detonating. No casualties were reported.<\/p>\n

In its daily report, the air force said air defence forces had downed or suppressed 176 of 205 drones targeting Ukraine overnight.<\/p>\n

It said 24 drone hits were recorded at 15 locations, and the attack was ongoing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


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Russia has accused Ukraine of killing at least 24 people, including a child, in a drone attack on a hotel and cafe where New Year celebrations were taking place in a Russian-controlled part of Ukraine\u2019s southern Kherson region. Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-installed governor of the region, first made the claim in a statement on Telegram […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7190,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7189\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}