MOSCOW, Jan 02 (AFP): Russia on Thursday said Kyiv was behind a drone strike on a hotel in the Moscow-held part of Ukraine's southern Kherson region that killed at least 20 people celebrating the New Year, accusing it of "torpedoing" peace attempts.
The accusation came at a crunch moment, after weeks of diplomacy aimed at brokering an end to the nearly four-year war, and as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country was "10 per cent" away from a peace deal. Tens of thousands of people have been killed, eastern Ukraine decimated and millions forced to flee their homes since Russia launched its all-out offensive in 2022. According to the Russia-appointed governor of the Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo, "the enemy" fired three drones that struck a cafe and hotel on the Black Sea coast in Khorly where "civilians were celebrating the New Year".
A building gutted by fire, piles of smouldering rubble and charred bodies were seen in pictures he posted on Telegram.
Kyiv has not commented on the allegations.
Russia's Investigative Committee said it had opened a probe into the attack, which had "killed more than 20 people and injured many more". The Russian foreign ministry said the death toll was still being clarified.
Russia puts death toll from Ukrainian
strike on occupied village at 27
Russia's accusations against Ukraine come amid a US-led diplomatic push to end the nearly four-year war in Ukraine Russian authorities said Friday that the death toll from a Ukrainian drone strike they said struck a café in a Russian-occupied village in Ukraine's Kherson region rose to 27 people. Kyiv denied attacking civilian targets.
Svetlana Petrenko, spokeswoman of Russia's main criminal investigation agency, the Investigative Committee, said in a statement that a Ukrainian drone strike on a café and hotel in the village of Khorly, where at least 100 civilians were celebrating New Year's Eve overnight into Thursday, killed 27 people, including two minors. A total of 31, including five minors, were hospitalized with injuries.
A criminal probe on the charges of carrying out an act of terrorism has been opened, Petrenko said.
