What is the difference between 残念ながら and 残念なことに?

Question

I hear both 残念ながら and 残念なことに when expressing that something was unfortunate before the actual sentence, much like the English "Unfortunately, ...". However, I'm not sure on where these two phrases differ. Is their usage the same?

Answer 1

They are some nuance differences.

残念ながら would be like "unfortunately", telling speaker's feeling.  

残念なことに would be "it is unfortunate : used when giving some contradictions about speaker's statements like there is a good thing happen however there is also a bad thing happen.