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Russia And Ukraine The two countries accused each other of targeting civilians over the New Year, with Moscow reporting a deadly strike on a hotel in territory it occupies in southern Ukraine, while kyiv said there had been another large attack on its electricity sources.
The reports coincide with intensive negotiations overseen by US President Donald Trump aimed at ending a war that has lasted nearly four years. Each country said the other was doing everything in its power to influence its views and shape the outcome.
“For the New Year, Russia is deliberately starting war. More than 200 attack drones were launched into Ukraine overnight,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram, claiming that energy infrastructure in seven regions of Ukraine had been targeted.
Russia has accused Ukraine of killing at least 24 people, including a child, in a drone strike on a hotel and cafe where civilians were meeting on New Year’s Eve in a Russian-controlled part of the Kherson region in southern Ukraine.
The Ukrainian military, which has accused Russia of killing numerous civilians in its own attacks on Ukrainian cities, said it targeted strictly military and energy targets, but made no specific reference to accounts of the attack on the hotel.
Zelenskiy said Russian attacks over the holiday season showed Ukraine could not afford delays in air defense supplies.
“(Our) allies have the names of the equipment that we are missing. We hope that everything that was agreed with the United States at the end of December for our defense will arrive on time,” he declared, without further details.
RUSSIANS ALLEGE “WAR CRIME”
Vladimir Saldo, the region’s Russian-installed governor, said three Ukrainian drones struck celebrations in Khorly, a coastal village, in what he called a “deliberate strike” against civilians. He said many people were burned alive.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said that in addition to the 24 dead, 50 people were injured.
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He said the strike, as well as other drone attacks blamed on Ukraine, were aimed at “diverting attention from the failures of the Ukrainian army on the front. The kyiv regime is trying to prove its viability through terrorist acts.”
On Monday, Moscow accused kyiv of attempting to strike President Vladimir Putin’s residence. Ukrainian and European officials said the incident did not occur, and U.S. security officials also reportedly found that Ukraine did not target the residence.
A senior Russian military official handed over to a U.S. military attache what he said was part of a Ukrainian drone containing data that he said proved the Ukrainian military had targeted the residence.
Reuters was not immediately able to verify the reported attack in the Kherson region or photographs of what Saldo’s press service said was its aftermath on Thursday. Saldo said he briefed Putin on details of the attack.
The images showed that at least one dead body was visible under a white sheet. The building showed signs of a raging fire and there were what looked like blood stains on the floor. Russian news agency TASS published a video showing drone fragments, some with Ukrainian markings.
Ukrainian officials regularly report civilian deaths following Russian air attacks, including in the Ukrainian city of Kherson, located near the front line.
Ukraine’s Kherson region governor Oleksandr Prokudin said a man was killed and an 87-year-old woman injured in attacks on the city on Thursday.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said railway facilities were attacked in three regions.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said Thursday its strikes hit military targets, as well as energy infrastructure that it said was used to support Ukraine’s military.
Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, told TASS that those who carried out the hotel attack and their commanders should be targeted.
Kherson is one of four regions in Ukraine that Russia has claimed as its own in 2022, a move that kyiv and most Western countries have denounced as an illegal land grab.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said Russian air defense units had shot down 35 Ukrainian drones in the past 24 hours. He did not report any casualties or damage.
