Ukraine denies it was behind drone strike on occupied Kherson region that killed 27

The Ukrainian authorities have rejected accusations that its forces carried out a drone strike on a cafe and hotel in the Russian-occupied part of the Kherson region that killed 27 people, Ukrainian news agency Interfax-Ukraine reported on Friday.

“The Ukrainian Defence Forces adhere to the norms of international humanitarian law and strike exclusively at enemy military targets, Russian fuel and energy facilities and other legitimate targets, aiming to reduce the military capacity of the aggressor country,” Dmytro Lykhoviy, the spokesperson of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, told Interfax-Ukraine.

Lykhoviy added that Moscow had previously resorted to disinformation in order to influence the international community and the course of peace negotiations. On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused Ukrainian forces of mounting a massive drone strike on one of Vladimir Putin’s official residences in northwestern Russia’s Novgorod region, something that Ukraine immediately denied, and which the CIA later deemed to have been an attack on a military target in the same region.

The drone strike on the Black Sea town of Khorly in the early hours of Thursday was reported yesterday by the Russian-installed governor of the occupied region, Vladimir Saldo. According to the latest data, 27 people were killed, and 31 more people, including five children, were hospitalised.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova immediately blamed Ukraine’s supporters in the West for the incident, while Valentina Matviyenko, the speaker of Russia’s upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, also condemned the attack, saying that it served to underline the righteousness of Russia’s aims in its so-called “special military operation.”