GENICHESK, January 2. /TASS/. Ukraine’s elite Birds of Madyar drone unit was deployed to the Kherson Region and could be behind a terrorist attack on a hotel and a caf· in the settlement of Khorly that killed 27 people, Governor Vladimir Saldo said.
"According to operational reconnaissance data, the Kiev regime deployed Birds of Madyar militants to the right bank of the Kherson Region. These are what we can call terrorists - drone operators. Considering the special cynicism and cruelty of the terrorist attack in Khorly and a strike on a car in Tarasovka that killed a child, precisely the Madyar unit can be the direct perpetrator of this crime," the governor said.
The Kherson Region governor said on January 1 that the Ukrainian military had launched a targeted drone strike on a cafe and hotel situated on the Black Sea coast in Khorly where civilians had gathered to celebrate the New Year. One drone carried an incendiary mixture that caused a fire in the caf·.
According to the Russian Investigative Committee’s data, at least 100 civilians were inside the caf· together with the staff at the time of the strike. The attack killed 27 people, including two minors. Thirty-one people, among them five children, were taken to medical institutions with injuries of various severity. Investigators have launched a criminal probe on counts of a terrorist attack.