Ukraine denied involvement on Thursday in a New Year’s Day drone attack on a seaside café in Ukraine’s Russian-occupied Kherson region which Moscow says killed at least 27 civilians.
Vladimir Saldo, the Kremlin-appointed governor of Russian-occupied Kherson, alleged on Thursday that three Ukrainian drones had targeted a café and hotel in the coastal village of Khorly where people were celebrating the new year – killing more than two dozen civilians and injuring over 50 more, including children.
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As per Ukrainska Pravda, military spokesperson Dmytro Lykhovii rejected Saldo’s accusation.
“Ukraine’s Defence Forces adhere to the norms of international humanitarian law and strike exclusively at enemy military targets, facilities of the Russian fuel and energy sector and other legitimate targets, with the aim of reducing the military potential of the aggressor state,” he said.
Lykhovii added that the Kremlin has a track record of using disinformation to attempt to influence the course of peace talks.
On Dec. 29, Moscow claimed that Ukraine had launched a swarm of 91 drones to attack Russian President Vladimir Putin’s residence in Valdai in Russia’s Novgorod region. Despite proffering no evidence to substantiate this allegation, the Kremlin said that – as a result of Ukraine’s “terrorist attack” – their negotiating position in ongoing US-led peace talks would be “revised.”
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By Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reports, a report by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had concluded that the Valdai story was untrue (although Russia has now vowed to prove otherwise.)
According to AFP, a source in Ukraine’s defence forces confirmed to them that a strike had taken place, but said the attack targeted a military gathering that was closed to civilians. Unverified reports have emerged that Sergei Bogan, a former head of the occupation police department in Kalanchak, may have been killed in the attack.
Russian state media outlet TASS reported on Thursday that one of the drones used in the Khorly attack was armed with an incendiary mixture, leading many of the victims to be burnt alive. If Ukraine were behind such an attack on civilians, it would constitute a war crime.
As per TASS, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN Gennady Gatilov accused Ukraine of launching the attack to “derail” the peace talks, demanding that the UN Human Rights Commissioner publicly condemn “the Kiev [sic] regime’s monstrous terrorist attack in the Kherson Region.”
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