Russia puts death toll from Ukrainian strike at 27 as Zelenskyy names intelligence chief to new role

Russian authorities said Friday that the death toll from a Ukrainian drone strike they said struck a café in a Russian-occupied village in Ukraine’s Kherson region rose to 27 people. Kyiv denied attacking civilian targets.

Svetlana Petrenko, spokeswoman of Russia’s main criminal investigation agency, the Investigative Committee, said in a statement that a Ukrainian drone strike on a café and hotel in the village of Khorly, where at least 100 civilians were celebrating New Year’s Eve overnight into Thursday, killed 27 people, including two minors. A total of 31, including five minors, were hospitalized with injuries.

A criminal probe on the charges of carrying out an act of terrorism has been opened, Petrenko said.

A spokesman for Ukraine’s General Staff, Dmytro Lykhovii, denied attacking civilians. He told Ukraine’s public broadcaster Suspilne on Thursday that Ukrainian forces “adhere to the norms of international humanitarian law” and “carry out strikes exclusively against Russian military targets, facilities of the Russian fuel and energy sector, and other lawful targets.”

Lykhovii said that General Staff published an explicit list of targets that the Ukrainian army struck on the night of New Year’s Eve that did not include occupied parts of the Kherson region.

Lykhovii noted that Russia has repeatedly used disinformation and false statements to disrupt the ongoing peace negotiations.

The Associated Press could not independently verify claims made about the attack.

Zelenskyy appoints intelligence chief to new role

In Kyiv, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appointed the head of military intelligence Kyrylo Budanov as his new chief of staff Friday, following the resignation of Andrii Yermak after a corruption scandal over a month ago.

In a post on Telegram, Zelenskyy said Ukraine now needs to focus on security issues, the development of its defense and security forces, and the diplomatic track of negotiations — areas that will fall under the remit of the Office of the President headed by Budanov.

Zelenskyy dismissed Yermak, the previous head of the Office of the President, on Nov. 28 after anti-corruption officials conducted searches at his residence as part of an investigation into alleged graft in the energy sector.

Budanov 39, is one of the country’s most recognizable and popular wartime figures and has led Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, known as the GUR, since 2020.

A career military intelligence officer, he rose through the ranks of Ukraine’s defense establishment after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, taking part in special operations and intelligence missions linked to the conflict in eastern Ukraine. He was reportedly wounded during one such operation.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, Budanov has become a prominent public face of Ukraine’s intelligence effort, regularly appearing in interviews and briefings that mix strategic signaling with psychological pressure on Moscow. He has frequently warned of Russia’s long-term intentions toward Ukraine and the region, while portraying the war as an existential struggle for Ukrainian statehood.

Under Budanov’s leadership, the GUR expanded its operational footprint, coordinating intelligence, sabotage and special operations aimed at degrading Russian military capabilities far beyond the front lines. Ukrainian officials have credited military intelligence with operations targeting Russian command structures, logistics hubs, energy infrastructure and naval assets, including strikes deep inside Russian territory and occupied areas.

His appointment to head the Office of the President marks an unusual shift, placing a serving intelligence chief at the center of Ukraine’s political and diplomatic coordination. Zelenskyy has framed the move as part of a broader effort to sharpen the state’s focus on security, defense development and diplomacy as the war with Russia continues into its fourth year.

“Kyrylo has specialized experience in these areas and sufficient strength to achieve results,” Zelenskyy said.

Witkoff hails progress in negotiations

Russia’s accusations against Ukraine come as the U.S. leads a diplomatic push to end the nearly four-year war in Ukraine. Earlier this week, Moscow alleged that Kyiv launched a long-range drone attack against a residence of Russian President Vladimir Putin in northwestern Russia overnight from Sunday to Monday.

Kyiv has called the allegations of an attack on Putin’s residence a ruse to derail ongoing peace negotiations, which have ramped up in recent weeks on both sides of the Atlantic.

In his New Year’s address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that a peace deal was “90% ready” but warned that the remaining 10%, believed to include key sticking points such as territory, would “determine the fate of peace, the fate of Ukraine and Europe, how people will live.”

Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said Wednesday that he, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner had a “productive call” with the national security advisers of Britain, France, Germany and Ukraine “to discuss advancing the next steps in the European peace process.”

Elsewhere in Ukraine, Russia conducted what local authorities called “one of the most massive” drone attacks at Zaporizhzhia overnight.

At least nine Russian drones struck the city, damaging dozens of residential buildings and other civilian infrastructure, head of the regional administration, Ivan Fedorov, wrote on Telegram on Friday. There were no casualties, the official said.

Overall, Russia fired 116 long-range drones at Ukraine last night, according to Ukraine’s Air Force, which said that 86 drones were intercepted, while 27 more have reached their targets.

The Russian Defense Ministry reported Friday that its air defenses intercepted 64 Ukrainian drones overnight over multiple Russian regions.

Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of Russia’s Belgorod region on the border with Ukraine, on Friday also accused Ukrainian forces of carrying out a missile strike on the city of Belgorod. Two women were hospitalized with injuries, Gladkov said. The strike shattered windows in multiple residential buildings and damaged an unspecified “commercial” facility and a number of cars, according to the official.