Kherson Oblast after the turn of the year: what reports showed
Two reports from the final days of 2025 and the first of 2026 pointed to continued harm to civilians in and around Kherson Oblast.
What did the start of 2026 look like in Kherson Oblast? On 2 January 2026, the most recent reports described violence on both sides of the front line in the region, with civilians among the casualties.
On 1 January, Russian drone strikes on Dniprovskyi District in Kherson killed one person and injured another. The strikes were reported as part of the Russo-Ukrainian war.
The day before, on 31 December 2025, Russian authorities reported at least 24 people killed, including a child, and dozens more injured in a Ukrainian drone attack on a hotel and a restaurant in Khorly, in Russian-occupied Kherson Oblast. The figures came from the Russian side.
Taken together, the two reports show that the oblast, divided between areas under Ukrainian control and areas under Russian occupation, saw drone attacks in both parts within roughly a day. The reports gave no further detail on the circumstances of either incident, and the casualty numbers for Khorly were attributed to Russian authorities as reported at the time.
