The death toll in Ukraine’s New Year’s Eve attack on a building where Russian soldiers were gathered in Makiivka in eastern Ukraine has risen to 89, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday night.
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“The number of our dead comrades has reached 89,” General Sergei Sevryukov said in a video statement released by the Russian Defense Ministry.
New bodies have been discovered in the ruins, he said.
“A commission is currently investigating the circumstances” of the attack, he added.
“But it is already clear that the main cause (…) is the unauthorized switching on and massive use of mobile phones by personnel within range of enemy weapons,” the general explained.
In an extremely rare admission, Russia’s Defense Ministry on Monday admitted that 63 soldiers were involved in a Ukrainian strike on New Year’s Eve on a building in Makiivka, a Russian-occupied town in Ukraine’s Donetsk region (east), which Moscow claims it will annex. Kyiv points to a much higher record.
Rallies were held in Russia on Tuesday to commemorate the killed soldiers. Her death came as a shock that unleashed a wave of criticism of the army.