The barbaric attack on New Year’s Eve celebrants, including families with children, who had gathered in a hotel and café in the Black Sea coastal village of Khorly, in the oblast of Kherson, which so far has killed 24 and injured at least 50 people, has drawn scathing attack and condemnation from Russian officials and leading figures.
Konstantin Kosachev, vice speaker of the Federation Council of the Russian Federation, the upper chamber of the Russian parliament, stated, “This is a monstrous crime. Any attacks on civilian targets are a war crime. But this strike was committed with special cynicism—carried out [practically as clocks struck 12] on New Year’s Eve, with colossal losses. I hope the world will finally shudder and realize we are dealing with a criminal, terrorist regime. Absolute moral deformity.”
Valentina Matvienko, chairwoman of the Federation Council, said, “They knew for certain that there were peaceful people there—families with children—and attacked deliberately. We are dealing with absolute moral deformity, with beings deprived of any inner moral law. They have no moral right to represent power in a normal society…. They burned people alive.”
Kherson Governor Vladimir Saldo assessed, “There were no military personnel there. Strange to consider the children and teenagers who were killed and wounded as military targets. A crime committed with special cynicism.”
