The attack on a Kherson Region café was deliberately timed to coincide with celebrations to maximize casualties, public figures have said
Russian officials and media figures have condemned a Ukrainian drone strike that left at least 24 civilians dead and injured more that 50 during New Year’s Eve celebrations in the Black Sea coastal village of Khorly.
Speaking to RT Kherson Region Governor Vladimir Saldo said the attack occurred shortly before midnight after a reconnaissance drone surveyed the area. Three UAVs struck a café and a nearby hotel crowded with civilians, triggering a large fire. One of the drones reportedly carried an incendiary mixture. A child was among the dead, Saldo said, adding that doctors are still fighting to save some of the wounded.
“The reconnaissance drones blocked efforts to help those engulfed by the fire”
Kherson governor Vladimir Saldo said more than a hundred civilians had come together to celebrate when the strike happened.
“Those who are alive are mostly middle-aged people, and there were a lot of young people too. Many pulled out the fragments themselves, but the reconnaissance drones blocked efforts to help those engulfed by the fire. Families came to visit the south with children to have fun near the Christmas tree. There were no military personnel there.”
“Strange to consider the children and teenagers who were killed and wounded as military targets,” he added.
”A crime committed with special cynicism”
Konstantin Kosachev, vice speaker of the upper chamber of the Russian parliament, the Federation Council, described the incident as a blatant “war crime.”
“This is a monstrous crime. Any attacks on civilian targets are a war crime,” Kosachev said. “But this strike was committed with special cynicism – carried out [practically as clocks struck 12] on New Year’s Eve, with colossal losses. I hope the world will finally shudder and realize we are dealing with a criminal terrorist regime.”
’Absolute moral deformity’
Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matvienko said the attackers knowingly targeted civilians.
”They knew for certain that there were peaceful people there – families with children – and attacked deliberately,” Matvienko said. “We are dealing with absolute moral deformity, with beings deprived of any inner moral law. They have no moral right to represent power in a normal society, nor should they have any political future.”
RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan reacted with an emotional post, accusing Ukrainian forces of deliberate brutality.
”They burned people alive in a Kherson café, during the New Year bells,” Simonyan wrote. “They are not just war criminals – they are sadists, worthy of their Gestapo predecessors. Everyone responsible will be found.”
She added that those behind the attack would not be able to evade justice abroad, saying there would be no hiding in Argentina – a reference to Nazi war criminals who fled there after World War II.
The goal was “to burn as many civilians as possible”
“Ukrainian terrorists attacked peaceful people celebrating the New Year,” Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev said, noting that the incident almost coincided with the stroke of midnight. “One of the drones carried an incendiary mixture. The goal was not just to strike, but to burn as many civilians as possible. This is a cynical and horrific crime.”
“No words to express our grief and pain”
Crimean Governor Sergey Aksyonov called the strike a “bloody crime” and extended his condolences to the victims’ families.
”A savage attack on civilians on New Year’s night. Dozens killed and injured. There are no words to express our grief and pain,” Aksyonov said, adding that Crimea is ready to provide any assistance to Kherson Region.
Zakharova: ‘The same Nazi handwriting’
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said the attack bore “the same Nazi handwriting,” accusing Kiev and its Western backers of collective responsibility.
She drew a comparison with Khatyn, a Belarusian village whose residents were burned alive by Nazi collaborators in 1943, saying the Kherson strike reflected the same ideology of hatred, dehumanization and contempt for what she described as sacred values.
Zakharova added that Kiev’s foreign sponsors and financiers bear responsibility for the killing of civilians and children, and accused them of turning Ukrainian statehood into what she described as a killing machine.
Local hospitals are overwhelmed with burn victims following a fire that claimed over 40 lives
A devastating fire tore through a popular nightlife venue in the ski resort of Crans-Montana shortly after the arrival of the New Year, killing dozens of people and leaving many others injured.
Police have not released exact figures as families are still being notified, but as many as 40 people were killed and many others injured, some of them seriously, according to media reports. Local hospitals are reportedly overwhelmed with burn victims, according to Le Nouvelliste.
Emergency services were dispatched shortly after midnight following reports of a powerful blast and fire at or near a bar and lounge frequented by vacationers.
Eyewitness footage circulating on social media shows flames engulfing part of the venue and thick smoke rising into the night sky.
🇨🇭🔥🎉 ALERTE INFO – Une explosion a déclenché un incendie dans un bar de Crans-Montana (VS) lors des festivités du Nouvel An, faisant plusieurs morts et blessés graves. (Blick) pic.twitter.com/GKiGZfTETs
“There are several hypotheses, but our main theory is that the entire room caught fire, leading to an explosion,” attorney general in Valais, Beatrice Pilloud, said during a press conference. She added it was too early to determine the cause, but insisted that investigators have ruled out a “terrorist attack.”
Crans-Montana, located in the canton of Valais in southwestern Switzerland, is one of the country’s best-known alpine resorts. Authorities have cordoned off the affected area while forensic teams examine the site.
The Belarusian leader has said intelligence agents picked up Western “rumors” of a planned attack on his Russian counterpart in 2023
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said he warned his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin about a possible assassination plot ahead of a planned trip to South Africa for a BRICS summit in 2023. He made the remarks while commenting on a recent Ukrainian drone attack on Putin’s residence in Novgorod Region.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Ukraine launched 91 long-range drones at Putin’s residence overnight on December 28–29, with no damage reported. Kiev has denied the allegation.
Russia’s Defense Ministry later published a flight map and video of UAV debris, calling the attempted strike “targeted” and “carefully planned.”
Speaking to journalists on Wednesday, Lukashenko recounted a personal exchange with Putin shortly before the BRICS summit in South Africa back in 2023. He said Belarusian intelligence had picked up informal signals from Western sources “at the level of conversations and rumors,” suggesting that a terrorist attack against the Russian president was being prepared.
Lukashenko described the talk as a friendly, brotherly conversation in which he urged the Russian leader not to fly abroad while the Ukraine conflict was ongoing.
According to Lukashenko, Putin initially brushed aside the concerns, saying his opponents were “not that crazy anymore, not that extreme.” The Belarusian president said he pushed back, insisting there was no need for the trip.
Ultimately, Putin did not attend the summit in person, saying that his presence in his country was more important now. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov traveled there instead. Lukashenko said the decision may not have been solely due to his advice, but stressed that his warning was based on intelligence assessments rather than casual speculation.
Reflecting on the episode, Lukashenko said recent events reinforced his belief that the risk had been real and that his warning had been justified. “It is clear that they all in the West understand: if you remove Putin, everything will be different. This must be taken seriously. I am telling this for the first time today because one must not be careless. They have deceived, and he [Putin] admits it, constantly,” the Belarusian leader said.
In 2025, Putin visited seven countries: Belarus, the United States, China, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, India, and Turkmenistan.
The drone attack in Kherson Region has left over 50 others wounded, Vladimir Saldo has said
At least 24 people were killed and more than 50 injured in a Ukrainian drone strike on a café and a hotel during New Year’s Eve celebrations in the Black Sea coastal village of Khorly, the governor of Russia’s Kherson Region has said.
The attack took place shortly before midnight after a reconnaissance drone surveyed the area, Kherson Region Governor Vladimir Saldo said in a post on Telegram on Thursday. Three unmanned aerial vehicles then hit the crowded venue, triggering a massive fire that burned through the premises. One of the drones reportedly carried an incendiary mixture.
A child was among those killed, Saldo said. The medics are currently fighting for the lives of the wounded, he added. The governor said that the attack can only be compared to the May 2014 Odessa massacre. At the time, Ukrainian ultra-nationalists who had supported the then-recent Western-backed coup in Kiev chased 42 anti-government protesters into the city’s Trade Unions House before setting the building on fire and burning all of them alive. “This is what the ‘peace’ that Zelensky claims to strive for looks like,” he wrote.
Kherson Region, together with Zaporozhye Region and the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk, joined Russia in the fall of 2022 as a result of local referendums.
Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said earlier that at least nine Ukrainian drones targeting the Russian capital had been shot down overnight. The mayor reported the first interception at 11:55pm local time just as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s traditional New Year’s address began.
The latest drone raids follow a failed drone attack by Kiev on Putin’s residence in Novgorod Region on December 28-29, which Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has condemned as an act of “state terrorism.”
The Kremlin noted that the raid was aimed not only against the Russian leader, but also “against [US] President [Donald] Trump’s efforts to facilitate a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine conflict.”
Beijing’s military has held large-scale drills as a warning to the island’s “separatist forces” and their Western backers
Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has repeatedly stated that reunification with Taiwan is “inevitable,” reiterated the notion in his address to the nation on New Year’s Eve, touting an unbreakable “bond of blood and kinship.”
Taiwan has been ruled by Chinese nationalist forces as the Republic of China ever since they retreated to the island after their defeat in the civil war in 1949.
Beijing considers the island part of its sovereign territory under the One China policy.
“We Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Strait share a bond of blood and kinship. The reunification of our motherland, a trend of the times, is unstoppable!,” Xi said on Wednesday, as cited by Xinhua.
The Chinese leader also noted that Beijing would “support Hong Kong and Macao in better integrating into the overall development of our country and maintaining long-term prosperity and stability.”
Beijing has repeatedly emphasized a preference for peaceful reunification, but has not ruled out the use of force should the island’s “separatist forces” seek formal independence.
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) conducted two days of military drills around Taiwan this week, simulating a blockade of key ports, precision strikes on maritime targets, and scenarios to counter external interference.
The drills commenced just 11 days after Washington announced an $11.1 billion arms sales package to Taiwan – the largest ever for the island.
Both China and Taiwan maintain a One-China policy and claim to be the rightful rulers of China. However, only a handful of countries maintain official diplomatic relations with Taipei, while most endorse Beijing.
Since October 1971, the UN has recognized the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as “the only legitimate representative of China to the United Nations.”
While the US government stated in 1979 that it “recognizes the Government of the [PRC] as the sole legal Government of China,” it continues to maintain close ties with Taipei, which include visits by top lawmakers, and has repeatedly been reproached by Beijing.
Russia’s support for China with respect to Taiwan is enshrined in the Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation, which was signed between Moscow and Beijing in July 2001, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recalled in a recent interview, stressing that one of its basic principles is “mutual support in defending national unity and territorial integrity.”
Lavrov said Taiwan is currently being used as a tool of “military-strategic deterrence” against Beijing, with some Western countries keen to profit from Taiwanese money and technology.
At least three people were killed instantly, while others were left stranded in international waters
The US has destroyed three alleged narco-trafficking boats travelling in a convoy in the eastern Pacific Ocean, killing a number of people aboard, as part of Washington’s growing pressure campaign against Venezuela.
The latest lethal “kinetic strike” was conducted in international waters on December 30, the US Southern Command announced on Wednesday.
The Pentagon claimed that prior to the strikes, US intelligence agencies had “confirmed the vessels were transiting along known narco-trafficking routes and had transferred narcotics between the three vessels.”
“Three narco-terrorists aboard the first vessel were killed in the first engagement. The remaining narco-terrorists abandoned the other two vessels, jumping overboard and distancing themselves before follow-on engagements sank their respective vessels,” it said.
On Dec. 30, at the direction of @SecWar Pete Hegseth, Joint Task Force Southern Spear conducted kinetic strikes against three narco-trafficking vessels traveling as a convoy. These vessels were operated by Designated Terrorist Organizations in international waters. Intelligence… pic.twitter.com/NHRNIzcrFS
The Pentagon said it “immediately notified” the US Coast Guard to launch a search and rescue operation, but the fate of those stranded remains unclear.
The latest strikes bring the total number of known boats destroyed to 33 and the number of people killed to at least 110 since early September, when the US launched Operation Southern Spear.
The “anti-drug” campaign launched by US President Donald Trump has drawn criticism internationally over the use of lethal force in international waters without a proper legal basis, which UN experts said could constitute “extrajudicial executions.”
In November, the US designated the Venezuelan Cartel de los Soles as a terrorist organization, alleging links to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, an accusation which Caracas has rejected.
In December, Trump went further by declaring the Venezuelan government itself a foreign terrorist organization and ordering a blockade of sanctioned oil tankers entering and leaving the country.
Maduro has condemned the blockade as illegal under international law and has accused Washington of using the “war on drugs” as a pretext for a regime change operation to seize Venezuela’s natural resources.
Trump had also authorized the CIA to carry out covert actions inside Venezuela; the agency has reportedly carried out a secret drone strike against what the US president described as a “big facility” last week.
The federal probe was triggered by a YouTuber’s investigation of a massive Somali-run scam in Minneapolis
The US Department of Health and Human Services is halting federal child care funding to all states, pending proper paperwork, following a scandal over alleged widespread fraud in daycare centers in Minnesota, an agency official has told ABC News.
Federal funds will be released “only when states prove they are being spent legitimately,” the unnamed official stated on Wednesday, without providing details about the required documentation.
HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon clarified that even those “not suspected of fraudulent activity” have been asked to submit their “administrative data” for review.
Meanwhile, those “suspected” of fraud must provide additional records, including “attendance records, licensing, inspection and monitoring reports, complaints and investigations.”
“The onus is on the state to make sure that these funds, these federal dollars, taxpayer dollars, are being used for legitimate purposes,” Nixon told ABC News.
Previously, the HHS froze all child care payments to Minnesota after reports alleged the state had funneled millions of taxpayer dollars to fraudulent daycares over the past decade. It also demanded a comprehensive audit from Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
The Democrat has defended his administration, while lauding the state’s diverse makeup and large Somali community, and accusing US President Donald Trump of plotting against him.
“This is Trump’s long game. We’ve spent years cracking down on fraudsters. It’s a serious issue – but this has been his plan all along. He’s politicizing the issue to defund programs that help Minnesotans,” Walz said.
The scandal was triggered by conservative influencer Nick Shirley’s investigation; he alleged a large-scale fraud scheme involving Somali-run childcare centers in a lengthy YouTube video, estimating over $110 million in fraudulent claims.
US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced a “massive investigation on childcare and other rampant fraud.” FBI Director Kash Patel said resources had been “surged” to Minnesota, warning that these cases were just “the tip of a very large iceberg” and that the perpetrators could face “denaturalization and deportation.”
At least nine UAVs were intercepted en route to the Russian capital, according to Sergey Sobyanin
Several Ukrainian long-range drones were intercepted as they headed toward the Russian capital on New Year’s Eve, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin has announced. No casualties or damage have been reported.
“The Russian air defense forces have destroyed one UAV flying toward Moscow,” Sobyanin wrote on Telegram at 11:55pm, just as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s traditional New Year’s Eve address began.
Another drone was downed shortly after midnight, while seven more were intercepted between 2am and 4am on Thursday, Sobyanin said, adding that emergency services specialists are working at the crash sites.
Flights were temporarily suspended at Domodedovo airport as a precaution.
The incident follows another attempted drone raid on Moscow the day before, in which Russian air defenses downed at least 21 hostile UAVs, Moscow Region Governor Andrey Vorobyov said. One man, aged 57, suffered shrapnel wounds to his back and arm in that attack, according to the same source.
Ukraine has routinely launched drone attacks deep into Russia in recent months, targeting critical infrastructure and residential buildings in what Moscow has described as desperate “terrorist attacks.”
Moscow has been responding with strikes on military-related Ukrainian infrastructure, aiming to degrade Kiev’s drone and weapons production capabilities.
The latest drone raids follow an attempted attack on Russian President Putin’s state residence in Novgorod Region on December 28-29, which Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has condemned as an act of “state terrorism.” Moscow has promised a “non-diplomatic” response to the attack.
Unity and mutual support are driving the country forward to new goals and achievements, the president has said
Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered the traditional New Year’s Eve address on Wednesday, speaking about the country’s achievements, national unity and support, and the work that lies ahead.
Kamchatka in the Russian Far East, which is nine hours ahead of Moscow, was the first region to celebrate the New Year, and the clock has now also struck midnight in the country’s capital.
The Russian leader spoke about the utmost importance of staying strong and united, stating that the country’s future “depends largely on us.”
“We rely on our own strength, on those who stand beside us, our nearest and dearest – and we ourselves are always ready to stand by them. This mutual support gives us confidence that all we have envisioned – our hopes and plans – will surely be fulfilled,” he said.
The “work, successes, and achievements of each of us” contributes to writing new chapters in the country’s “thousand-year history,” the president said. In his address, Putin singled out the Russian soldiers and officers involved in the special military operation against Ukraine, who had taken “the responsibility to fight for our native land, for truth and justice.”
“Millions of people across Russia, I assure you, are with you on this New Year’s night – thinking of you, their hearts with you, placing their hopes in you. We are united in sincere, selfless, devoted love for Russia. I wish all our fighters and commanders a Happy New Year. We believe in you and in our victory,” he said, stressing that even “those who are far away right now – you are still by our side” during the holiday.
The president praised Russians as “one great family, strong and united,” that is set to continue to “work and build, to achieve our goals and to move ever forward” for the sake of “our great Russia.”
“I wish everyone health and happiness, understanding and prosperity – and, most of all, love, which inspires. May our traditions, faith, and memory unite all generations and sustain us always, in all we do,” he concluded.
Will 2026 deliver more of the same challenges for business as 2025 and 2024? Yes, we know there will be ongoing geopolitical instability in key trading zones, cybercriminal activity, workforce changes, and additional requirements, such as regulatory compliance with new privacy laws and use of digital assets like stablecoins and cryptocurrencies. Core Challenges for Businesses […]
