Ukraine, Russia accused of trading in civilian strikes as new year begins – National
Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of targeting civilians on New Year’s Day, with Moscow reporting a deadly strike on a hotel in southern Ukraine and Kyiv saying there has been a wider attack on its forces.
These reports are in line with the serious negotiations overseen by US President Donald Trump aimed at ending this four-year-old war. Each country said the other was doing everything it could to influence its views and shape the outcome.
“On New Year’s Day, Russia deliberately brings war. More than 200 drones were sent to Ukraine overnight,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on Telegram, saying that energy infrastructure in seven regions of Ukraine were targeted.
Russia has accused Ukraine of killing at least 24 people, including a child, in a drone strike on a hotel and cafe where residents were celebrating the New Year in the Russian-controlled Kherson region of southern Ukraine.
Ukraine’s military, which has accused Russia of killing dozens of civilians in its attacks on Ukrainian cities, said it was focused on military and military forces, but did not comment on accounts of the hotel strike.
Zelenskiy said the holiday season attacks in Russia show that Ukraine cannot afford to delay air defense equipment.
“The allies have the names of the equipment we lack. We expect that everything agreed with the United States at the end of December regarding our defense will arrive on time,” he said, without elaborating.
RUSSIANS ALLEGED ‘WAR CRIMES’
Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-backed governor of the region, said three Ukrainian drones had struck a village in Khorly, a coastal town, in what he called a “deliberate strike” against civilians. He said many people were burned alive.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said that along with 24 deaths, 50 people were injured.
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It said the strike, along with other drone attacks blamed on Ukraine, sought to “distract attention from the failure of the Ukrainian military at the front. The Kyiv regime is trying to prove its effectiveness through terrorist acts.”
On Monday, Moscow accused Kyiv of trying to attack the home of President Vladimir Putin. Officials in Ukraine and Europe said that this incident did not happen and American security officials are also reported to have discovered that Ukraine was not targeting this residence.
A senior Russian military official handed over to a US military official what he said was part of a Ukrainian plane containing information he said proved Ukrainian forces were headed for the area.
Reuters could not immediately confirm the reported Kherson region attack or images of what Saldo media said were Thursday’s results. Saldo said he informed Putin about the details of the attack.
Pictures showed at least one body was visible under a white sheet. The building showed signs of a fire and what appeared to be blood splatters on the floor. Russian news agency TASS published a video showing fragments of the drone, some written in Ukrainian.
Ukrainian officials often report civilian deaths from Russian airstrikes, including in the Ukrainian-held city of Kherson, which is close to the front line.
The governor of Ukraine’s Kherson region, Oleksandr Prokudin, said one man was killed and an 87-year-old woman was injured when the city was attacked on Thursday.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said that trains were attacked in three regions.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Thursday its strikes had hit military targets, as well as electrical infrastructure it said was being used to support Ukrainian forces.
Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia, told TASS that those who carried out the attack on the hotels and their managers should be targeted.
Kherson is one of four regions in Ukraine that Russia claimed as its own in 2022, a move Kyiv and many Western countries condemned as an illegal land grab.
The Mayor of Moscow, Sergey Sobyanin, said that the Russian Air Defense Forces shot down 35 Ukrainian drones in the last 24 hours. He reported no injuries or damage.
