Comment on this storyCommentAdd to your saved storiesSave
KYIV – Russia launched a deadly rocket attack on a Ukrainian military brigade in the southeastern Zaporizhia region over the weekend, killing an unspecified number of soldiers, Ukrainian officials said. According to unconfirmed Ukrainian media reports and a member of the brigade, dozens may have been killed and injured.
Russian forces attacked troops from the 128th Mountain Assault Brigade with an Iskander-M missile on Friday, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said in a social media post late Saturday.
“Soldiers were killed and residents were also injured to varying degrees of severity,” the ministry said, without providing information on the number of dead, the circumstances or the exact location of the attack.
A member of the 128th Brigade, who wished to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the issue, said the missile hit the brigade as it gathered in the village of Zarychne, near the front line, for a medal ceremony honoring the country’s artillery Day of the Rocket Forces.
“I cannot say the exact number of victims,” said the soldier. “What we heard in the first few minutes after the strike was 22 people. But later one of the platoon commanders who was present at the ceremony said there were more than 30 people.”
The Washington Post could not independently verify reports of the strike.
The brigade member also said that the brigade’s artillery chief and “many officers” were killed. “All the artillery units, the best crews, gathered,” he said.
He also appeared to blame his unit’s leadership for the security lapses. “This is a mistake on the part of the command because they should have said, ‘Okay, let’s hand out awards to people by unit and gather in the trenches,'” he said. “In short, we just relaxed and it didn’t take long before we were overwhelmed.”
“The ‘Eye of Sauron’ is constantly watching you, and more than three people is a fat target,” he added, referring to the all-seeing evil lord in JRR Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” novels.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov called the incident “a tragedy” in a Facebook post on Saturday evening, without providing further details, and said he was ordering a “comprehensive investigation” into the incident.
Unconfirmed photos on social media showed burning cars and bodies lying on a dirt road in the village after the attack.
Viktor Mykyta, the governor of the southwestern Zakarpattia region where the 128th Brigade is normally stationed, announced a three-day period of mourning starting Monday, during which flags would be flown at half-mast, a minute’s silence would be observed in the morning, and “services will be held in churches of various denominations.” held in the region.”
“I advise you to visit shrines and pray for our defenders,” Mykyta wrote on social media on Saturday evening.
Zakarpattia is a small, largely rural mountainous region of just over a million inhabitants, bordering Hungary, Slovakia and Romania. The 128th Brigade is headquartered in Mukachevo, the region’s second largest city.
The attack on the brigade follows a strike last month at a Ukrainian soldier’s funeral in the eastern town of Hroza that killed 52 people. The majority of the deceased were civilians, including the widow and relatives of the dead soldier; It was not clear whether Russian forces expected military personnel to be present. Many villagers said they suspected that a Russian sympathizer living among them had informed the Russian military about the planned gathering.
A Russian missile attack on a funeral in Ukraine killed mostly civilians
Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s military chief, said in an interview published this week that modern military equipment allows both sides in the Russia conflict to easily detect concentrations of opposing forces.
“The simple fact is that we see everything the enemy does and he sees everything we do,” he told the Economist.