War in Ukraine: kyiv assures that it only hits “military targets” after a deadly attack in the occupied zone

Ukraine defends itself. kyiv is only striking Russian “military targets”, a Ukrainian army spokesperson told AFP on Friday after Moscow accused kyiv of killing 27 civilians in a drone strike on a cafe and hotel in an occupied area of ​​southern Ukraine.

“The Defense Forces of Ukraine respect the norms of international humanitarian law and strike exclusively at enemy military targets,” General Staff spokesman Dmytro Lykhoviy told AFP.

A source within the Ukrainian defense forces confirmed the attack to AFP while ensuring that it had targeted a Russian military gathering in a site closed to civilians. Russia on Thursday accused kyiv of striking a cafe and a hotel during New Year’s celebrations in the village of Khorly, located on a tiny peninsula on the Black Sea coast in the occupied part of Ukraine’s Kherson region.

Diplomatic tensions

A new report, provided Friday by the governor of the Kherson region appointed by Moscow, Vladimir Saldo, reports the death of “27 civilians, including two children”. A previous report Thursday from the Russian authorities reported 24 deaths. Russia accused kyiv of “consciously torpedoing any attempt to find peaceful solutions to the conflict.”

These accusations come against a backdrop of intense diplomatic efforts led by the United States aimed at ending the war between kyiv and Moscow triggered almost four years ago by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the worst armed conflict in Europe since the Second World War.

Russian “disinformation”

kyiv, for its part, accused Moscow of seeking to undermine the diplomatic process with “disinformation”. Russia has “repeatedly resorted to disinformation and false statements, including with the aim of influencing Ukraine’s international partners and the course of peace negotiations,” Lykhoviy said.

A Ukrainian military spokesman, Viktor Tregubov, mocked the Russian accusations on social media on Thursday. “So, who was staying at the hotel for the New Year in a village located near the front line, in the Kherson region (…)? Of course, it was the locals! They always go to hotels for New Years! The beaches of Kherson are particularly welcoming at minus four degrees,” he quipped on Facebook.

A statement from the General Staff published Thursday morning mentioned Ukrainian strikes having “hit two areas of concentration of military personnel and an enemy drone command post”, without however locating them.