Death toll from Ukrainian strike on occupied village rises to 27, Russia says

Russian authorities said that the death toll from a Ukrainian drone strike they claim struck a cafe in a Russian-occupied village in Ukraine’s Kherson region has risen to 27.

Kyiv has denied attacking civilian targets.

Svetlana Petrenko, spokeswoman for Russia’s main criminal investigation agency the Investigative Committee, said that a Ukrainian drone strike on a cafe and hotel in the village of Khorly, where at least 100 civilians were celebrating New Year’s Eve overnight into Thursday, killed 27 people, including two children.

A total of 31 people, including five children, were taken to hospital with injuries, officials said.

A criminal probe on the charges of carrying out an act of terrorism has been opened, Ms Petrenko said.

A spokesman for Ukraine’s General Staff, Dmytro Lykhovii, told Ukraine’s public broadcaster Suspilne on Thursday that Ukrainian forces “adhere to the norms of international humanitarian law” and “carry out strikes exclusively against Russian military targets, facilities of the Russian fuel and energy sector, and other lawful targets”.

Mr Lykhovii said that the General Staff has published an explicit list of targets that the Ukrainian army struck on the night of New Year’s Eve. The list did not include strikes on occupied parts of the Kherson region.

Mr Lykhovii noted that Russia has repeatedly used disinformation and false statements to disrupt the ongoing peace negotiations.

The Associated Press could not independently verify claims made about the attack.

In Kyiv, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky appointed head of military intelligence Kyrylo Budanov as his new chief of staff on Friday, following the resignation of Andrii Yermak after a corruption scandal over a month ago.

In a post on Telegram, Mr Zelensky said Ukraine now needs to focus on security issues, the development of its defence and security forces, and the diplomatic track of negotiations — areas that will fall under the remit of the Office of the President headed by Mr Budanov.

Mr Zelensky dismissed Mr Yermak, the previous head of the Office of the President, on November 28 after anti-corruption officials conducted searches at his residence as part of an investigation into the energy sector.

Mr Budanov 39, is one of the country’s most recognisable and popular wartime figures and has led Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, known as the GUR, since 2020.

A career military intelligence officer, he rose through the ranks of Ukraine’s defence establishment after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, taking part in special operations and intelligence missions linked to the conflict in eastern Ukraine. He was reportedly wounded during one such operation.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, Mr Budanov has become a prominent public face of Ukraine’s intelligence effort, regularly appearing in interviews and briefings that mix strategic signalling with psychological pressure on Moscow. He has frequently warned of Russia’s long-term intentions toward Ukraine and the region, while portraying the war as an existential struggle for Ukrainian statehood.

Earlier this week, Moscow alleged that Kyiv launched a long-range drone attack against a residence of Russian President Vladimir Putin in north-western Russia overnight from Sunday to Monday.

Kyiv has called the allegations of an attack on Mr Putin’s 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 address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that a peace deal was “90% ready” but warned that the remaining 10%, believed to include key sticking points such as territory, would “determine the fate of peace, the fate of Ukraine and Europe, how people will live”.

Mr Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said on Wednesday that he, US secretary of state Marco Rubio and Mr Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner had a “productive call” with the national security advisers of Britain, France, Germany and Ukraine “to discuss advancing the next steps in the European peace process”.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, Russia conducted what local authorities called “one of the most massive” drone attacks at Zaporizhzhia overnight.

At least nine Russian drones struck the city, damaging dozens of residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure, head of the regional administration, Ivan Fedorov, wrote on Telegram on Friday. There were no casualties, the official said.

Overall, Russia fired 116 long-range drones at Ukraine last night, according to Ukraine’s Air Force, which said that 86 drones were intercepted, while 27 more have reached their targets.

The Russian Defence Ministry reported on Friday that its air defences intercepted 64 Ukrainian drones overnight over multiple Russian regions.

Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of Russia’s Belgorod region on the border with Ukraine, also accused Ukrainian forces of carrying out a missile strike on the city of Belgorod.

Two women were taken to hospital with injuries, Mr Gladkov said. The strike shattered windows in multiple residential buildings and damaged an unspecified “commercial” facility and a number of cars, according to the official.