Updated 1/2/26 at 8:20am EST
Russian officials said on Thursday that 27 people, including two children, were killed in a village in Russian-controlled Kherson when a Ukrainian drone attack hit a hotel and cafe that was full of people celebrating the New Year.
According to Russia’s TASS news agency, the attack that hit the village of Khorly on the Black Sea coast involved three “large fixed-wing UAVs capable of carrying up to 15 kilograms of explosives.” The news agency published photos and videos of the aftermath.
“Many people were burned alive. A child was killed. In fact, the crime can be compared to what happened in Odessa’s Trade Union House,” said Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-backed governor of Kherson.
According to The Associated Press, Ukrainian officials have not yet commented on the attack. Russian officials are vowing retaliation, with former President Dmitry Medvedev, deputy of the Russian Security Council, saying, “Retaliation is inevitable as our army advances.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova pointed the finger at Ukraine’s Western backers, saying that “those who sponsor the bastard terrorists in Ukraine” are primarily to blame.
“I think every president and prime minister of European Union and NATO countries should get a report this morning – perhaps while having coffee with a croissant, poached eggs, and biscuits topped with jam – that would contain the breaking news we are discussing now, as it is tearing our hearts apart,” Zakharova said.
“They need to realize just once deep inside that the billions of dollars and euros they have sent to Kiev are being spent on burning people alive on New Year’s night,” she added.
Also on Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia fired more than 200 drones into Ukraine, targeting energy infrastructure. “Russia deliberately brings war into the New Year – launching more than two hundred attack drones against Ukraine overnight. Most of them were successfully shot down, and I thank all our warriors who repelled this attack,” he wrote on X.
On Wednesday, Ukrainian officials said Russian drones hit an apartment building in Odessa, injuring six people, including three children.
