Total crimes: how did the Russian Federation react to Kiev's terrorist attack in the Kherson region

The Kiev regime is achieving maximum psychological effect by killing civilians during the holidays, the interviewed experts told Izvestia. The strikes occur at a time when people gather in families, take to the streets, attend events. On the night of January 1, the Ukrainian Armed Forces inflicted a terrible blow on a hotel and cafe in Khorly, Kherson region. As a result of the terrorist attack, 24 people were killed, including children. The Russian Foreign Ministry said that the enemy had launched a planned and targeted strike. At the same time, Ukraine's steps are becoming an additional challenge for US President Donald Trump, who advocates ending the Ukrainian crisis.

Reaction to the terrorist attack in the Kherson region

In the first hour of the new year 2026, the Kiev regime committed a terrorist act against the civilian population. Ukrainian Armed Forces militants attacked a cafe and a hotel in the resort village of Khorly in the Kherson region with three drones. According to the head of the region, Vladimir Saldo, more than 100 people gathered there on New Year's Eve to celebrate the holiday. One of the drones was loaded with molotov cocktails. The strike killed 24 people, including one child.

— The bodies were completely, almost burned out. It's just scary to look at, like after a nuclear strike, there are only silhouettes lying there after clearing the rubble," said Saldo.

The fire that arose at the scene of the emergency was extinguished only in the morning. Its area was 500 square meters, the press service of the press secretary of the governor of the Kherson region, Vladimir Vasilenko, reported.

In total, according to the authorities, more than 50 people were injured, including six minors. People are in hospitals in the Kherson region and Crimea. According to Vladimir Saldo, there are serious patients among the wounded. Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov, the chief physician of the Dzhankoy Central District Hospital, said that four people had been taken in the morning. Two women are in moderate condition, the other patients are in severe condition.

— Qualified medical care was provided to everyone, primary surgical treatment was performed. Three of the patients were evacuated to third-level medical institutions in Simferopol. One patient is in intensive care in serious condition," Ovchinnikov said.

According to the head of the Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo, 19 people remain in hospitals. The regional authorities declared January 2 and 3 days of mourning. After the Ukrainian Armed Forces attack, the Investigative Committee of Russia opened a criminal case under the article on the terrorist attack. The drone strikes on a place where civilians gather were planned in advance, the Russian Foreign Ministry said. The official representative of the department, Maria Zakharova, compared the actions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kherson region with the tragedy in the Belarusian village of Khatyn, which was burned down by the Nazis in 1943. Rodion Miroshnik, the Russian Foreign Ministry's Ambassador-at-Large for crimes committed by the Kiev regime, said that this issue would be raised by Russian diplomats at all key international venues.

The Russian Foreign Ministry called on the governments of responsible sovereign states and relevant international organizations to publicly strongly condemn the terrorist attack in the Kherson region.

"Ignoring this tragedy will mean only one thing — the open complicity and complicity in terrorist crimes of neo—Bandera, which will receive proper legal qualifications with appropriate consequences," the department noted.

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia noted the particular cruelty and cynicism of the attack on people celebrating the New Year. The Ukrainian Armed Forces have turned major holidays into one of the main "windows of opportunity" for terrorist attacks on civilian targets in Russia and new regions, military expert Dmitry Boltenkov told Izvestia.

— This timing allows the Kiev regime to achieve maximum psychological effect: the strikes occur at a time when people gather with their families, take to the streets, attend festive events. A typical example is the tragedy in Belgorod on December 30, 2023. A rocket attack by the Ukrainian Armed Forces hit the city center on New Year's Eve, killing dozens of civilians, including children, and injuring more than 100 people. The Russian authorities directly called the incident a terrorist act, the purpose of which was to intimidate the population of the border region and disrupt the holidays," he recalled.

Such tactics are systemic in nature, the expert noted. On the eve of the New Year and Christmas holidays, the heads of the border regions are increasingly forced to warn residents about the high risks of shelling, limit mass events, and sometimes postpone or reduce the entertainment program.

The crime of the Ukrainian Armed Forces has already been condemned by the leaders of the LPR, DPR, Sevastopol, Saratov, Kursk, Ulyanovsk, Voronezh, and Penza regions. The heads of Moscow and St. Petersburg declared their readiness to provide all necessary assistance to the victims.

Expert assessments

The Kiev regime is deliberately turning the fighting into a plane of terror against the civilian population, and the attack on a cafe and a hotel in the Kherson region is from the same series, military expert Viktor Litovkin said in a conversation with Izvestia. According to him, such shelling cannot be explained either by military necessity or by an attempt to hit some significant object.

Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council and chairman of the United Russia party, said that retribution for the attack in the Kherson region should affect both the perpetrators of the terrorist attack and their commanders. By the way, on the night of December 29, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, the Ukrainian Armed Forces attempted a drone strike on Vladimir Putin's state residence in the Novgorod region.

— In this situation, Russia must move from harsh statements to no less harsh actions. If it is announced that a list of targets has been identified for the attack on our president's residence, then these targets must be defiantly and unambiguously struck so that the whole world sees the causal link between the terrorist strike and the response. We can talk about the residence of the Ukrainian leadership on Bankovaya Street, about key transport hubs in Kiev, through which Western emissaries ply back and forth," Viktor Litovkin believes.

Russia needs to be proactive, not waiting for reasons for "answers," but systematically destroying the enemy's military potential, military expert Vasily Dandykin believes.

"The only way to protect our citizens is to move the sanitary zone as far away from the borders as possible, and not by tens, but by hundreds of kilometers," he told Izvestia.

The more failures the enemy suffers on the line of contact, the more often he resorts to the tactics of sneaky attacks and terrorist attacks in the rear, he believes. According to the analyst, Ukraine's provocations can be expected to intensify in the coming week.

"It is necessary to exercise extreme vigilance in all regions, including those far from the front, since the enemy is actively using drones and sleeper cells inside the country," Dandykin believes.

It is possible that the terrorist attack by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kherson region may affect the tightening of Russia's negotiating position. Dmitry Boltenkov believes that this episode will not bring down the negotiating track by itself, but it may sharply narrow the corridor for any compromises on the part of Moscow.

"For the Western audience and Kiev, the attack is likely to be presented as a "response" to Russia's actions, which minimizes its impact on Ukraine's position at the negotiating table," Dmitry Boltenkov said.

At the same time, the terrorist attacks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces are becoming a challenge for US President Donald Trump, who is making efforts to end the conflict. Such strikes create a reputational dilemma for him: he will either have to distance himself from Kiev's openly terrorist actions, or prefer to ignore them in order not to break the image of a tough but pragmatic "peacemaker," Boltenkov believes.