Russia and Ukraine accused each other of targeting civilians over the New Year, with Moscow reporting a deadly strike on a hotel in territory that it occupies in southern Ukraine while Kyiv said there had been another broad attack on its power supplies. The reports coincide with intensive talks aimed at bringing an end to the nearly four-year-old war, overseen by US President Donald Trump. Both countries have said the other is doing all it can to influence his views and shape the outcome. “On New Year, Russia deliberately brings war. Over 200 attack drones were launched onto Ukraine in the night,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Telegram, saying that energy infrastructure in seven regions across Ukraine had been targeted. Russia accused Ukraine of killing at least 24 people, including a child, in a drone strike on a hotel and cafe where civilians were seeing in the New Year in a Russian-controlled part of the Kherson region in southern Ukraine. Ukraine’s military, which has accused Russia of killing many civilians in its own attacks on Ukrainian cities, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 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. According to Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-installed governor of the region, more than 100 revellers gathered at the hotel the night of the attack. He said that many people had been burnt alive. Russia’s foreign ministry said that as well as the 24 dead, 50 people had been injured, including six minors who were being treated in hospital. “There is no doubt that the attack was planned in advance, with drones deliberately targeting areas where civilians had gathered to celebrate New Year’s Eve,” the ministry said in a statement, calling the attack a “war crime”. On Monday, Moscow accused Kyiv of trying to strike a residence of President Vladimir Putin. Ukrainian and European officials have said the incident did not happen and US security officials were also reported to have found that Ukraine did not target the residence. Russia said Thursday that it would send Washington proof. The Russian foreign ministry accused Ukraine of carrying out a “terrorist attack”, called on international organisations to condemn it and warned Kyiv of “appropriate consequences” in a statement. It also accused the Ukrainian authorities of “deliberately torpedoing any attempts to find a peaceful resolution to the conflict”. Zelensky meanwhile said that Russia’s holiday season attacks showed Ukraine could not afford delays in air defence supplies. “(Our) allies have the names of equipment which we are lacking. We expect that everything agreed with the United States at the end of December for our defence will arrive on time,” he said, without clarifying further. Reuters was not able to immediately verify the reported Kherson region attack or photographs of what Saldo’s press service said was the aftermath. The images showed at least one dead body was visible beneath a white sheet. The building showed signs that a fire had raged and there were what looked like blood stains on the ground. Russia’s Tass news agency published video showing drone fragments, some with Ukrainian writing on them. Ukrainian officials regularly report civilian deaths from Russian air attacks, including in the Ukrainian-held city of Kherson, which lies near the front line. The Ukrainian governor of Kherson region, Oleksandr Prokudin, said that one man had been killed and an 87-year-old woman injured in attacks on the city Thursday, posting a video showing the woman’s badly damaged apartment. Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Oleksiy Kuleba said rail facilities had been attacked in three regions, including a locomotive depot and a station in the frontline region of Sumy. The Russian defence ministry said Thursday that its strikes had hit military targets, as well as energy infrastructure which it claimed was being used to support Ukraine’s military. In a separate report, Russia-appointed Saldo said later that a five-year-old child had been killed and three more people injured in a Ukrainian drone strike on a car near Tarasivka, another coastal village, close to Khorly. He did not provide evidence. Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, told Tass that those who carried out the hotel attack and their commanders should be targeted. Kherson is one of four regions in Ukraine which Russia claimed as its own in 2022, a move Kyiv and most Western countries denounced as an illegal land grab. Ukraine came under intense pressure in 2025, both from Russian bombardment and on the battlefield, where it has steadily ceded ground to Russia’s army. An AFP analysis based on Ukrainian air force data showed a slight fall in overnight Russian drone and missile attacks on Ukraine in December. Russia fired at least 5,134 drones in overnight attacks in the final month of 2025, 6% less than the month before, while the number of missiles declined by 18% in the same period, according to the data. However, the same data showed Ukraine destroyed a smaller share of the total sum of missiles and drones in December – 80%, compared with 82% in November.
Sunday, February 22, 2026
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Daily Newspaper published by GPPC Doha, Qatar.
