Russian officials said a Ukrainian drone strike killed 24 as they celebrated New Year in a Russian-occupied village in Ukraine.<\/b>
\nKyiv: Russian officials on Thursday said a Ukrainian drone strike killed 24 people and wounded at least 50 more as they celebrated the New Year in a Russian-occupied village in Ukraine\u2019s Kherson region, as tensions between the two nations continue to spike despite diplomats hailing productive peace talks.
Three drones struck a cafe and hotel in the resort town of Khorly on the Black Sea coast, the region\u2019s Moscow-installed leader, Vladimir Saldo, said in a statement on Telegram. He said that one of the drones carried an incendiary mixture, sparking a blaze.
Ukrainian officials did not immediately comment on the claim of a strike. The attack could not be independently verified by The Associated Press.
The attack was condemned by a number of Russian officials. Valentina Matviyenko, the chair of Russia\u2019s upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, said that the strike \u201cstrengthened\u201d Russia\u2019s resolve to quickly achieve its goals in its almost four-year invasion of Ukraine.
The strike \u201conce again demonstrates the validity of our initial demands,\u201d Matviyenko said.
The statement follows claims from Moscow that Ukraine launched a long-range drone attack against one of Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2019s official residences in northwestern Russia on Tuesday. Kyiv has denounced the claims as a \u201clie.\u201d
Russia\u2019s Defence Ministry released a video on Wednesday of a downed drone it said was involved in the attack.
The nighttime clip showed a man in camouflage, a helmet and a Kevlar vest standing near a damaged drone lying in snow. The man, his face covered, talks about the drone. Neither the man nor the Defence Ministry provided any location or date.
The video and claims could not be independently verified.
Kyiv has called the allegations of an attack on Putin\u2019s residence a ruse to derail ongoing peace negotiations, which have ramped up in recent weeks on both sides of the Atlantic.
In his New Year\u2019s address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that a peace deal was \u201c90 per cent ready\u201d but warned that the remaining 10 per cent, believed to include key sticking points such as territory, would \u201cdetermine the fate of peace, the fate of Ukraine and Europe, how people will live.\u201d
Trump\u2019s special envoy Steve Witkoff said Wednesday that he, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump\u2019s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner had a \u201cproductive call\u201d with the national security advisers of Britain, France, Germany and Ukraine to discuss advancing the next steps in the European peace process.\u201d
\u201cWe focused on how to move the discussions forward in a practical way on behalf of (Trump\u2019s) peace process, including strengthening security guarantees and developing effective deconfliction mechanisms to help end the war and ensure it does not restart,\u201d Witkoff said in a post on X.
Lead Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov also reaffirmed that European and Ukrainian officials plan to meet on Saturday, while Zelenskyy is due to hold talks next week with European leaders.
Elsewhere in Ukraine, Russia attacked the Odesa region overnight, targeting civilian infrastructure in several waves of drone attacks, according to regional head Oleh Kiper.
In a post on Telegram, Kiper said a two-story residential building was damaged and that a drone hit an apartment on the 17th floor of a high-rise building without detonating. There were no casualties reported.
In its daily report, Ukraine\u2019s air force said air defence forces had downed or suppressed 176 of 205 drones targeting the country overnight. It said hits by 24 strike drones were recorded at 15 locations, and the attack was still ongoing.
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