Moscow checks its figures. The death toll in Ukraine’s New Year’s Eve attack on a building where Russian soldiers were gathered in Makiivka has risen to 89, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday evening.
“The number of our dead comrades has reached 89,” said General Sergei Sevriukov. New bodies have been discovered in the ruins, he said. According to the Russians, the attack took place on January 1 at 00:01 against a makeshift base.
A rare recording from Moscow
“A commission is currently investigating the circumstances” of the attack on this Ukrainian city under Russian occupation in the Donetsk region, which Moscow claims to have annexed. “But it is already clear that the main cause (…) is illegal switching on and massive use of mobile phones by personnel within range of enemy weapons,” the general explained.
This announcement is extraordinary: not only is it the highest casualty figure in a single attack Moscow has conceded since the start of its invasion, but it also marks the first report of military casualties since September, when Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu mentioned 5,937 US casualties had ranks of the Russian army. On Monday, his ministry admitted that 63 soldiers had died in the attack, which was carried out using a HIMARS missile launcher system, a weapon provided by Washington to Kyiv to fight Moscow and which allows deep bombardments well behind enemy lines .
Kyiv points to a much higher record.
Ukraine, which admitted to having carried out this strike by giving the date of December 31, for its part submitted contradicting information. The strategic communications department of the Ukrainian army swore in particularly flowery language a balance sheet of 400 dead and 300 wounded.
More soberly, the staff said they had no definitive information on the number of casualties, and also put the number of military vehicles “of all types” destroyed in this bombardment at “up to ten.”
Russian criticism of the military leadership
According to former separatist commander Igor Strelkov, who is well acquainted with the situation on the ground, the building housing the Russian soldiers was completely destroyed by the strike because ammunition was stored there. He further estimated the number of victims at “several hundred”. And according to the Rybar Telegram channel, one of the main pro-Russian sources on the war, the building housed 600 people.
The announcement of these losses caused shock in Russia, but also criticism of the military command, which has already been embarrassed by a series of humiliating defeats in recent months. “Despite months of war, certain conclusions have still not been drawn,” comments blogger Boris Rojine, who is close to pro-Russian Ukrainian separatist circles, and castigates the “incompetence” of high-ranking officers.
Unusually in Russia, around 200 people gathered with the consent of the authorities in Samara (centre), where some of the killed soldiers came from. Some laid flowers in front of an eternal flame in one of the city’s main squares before bowing respectfully. According to local media, rallies were also held in other cities in the region, most notably in Togliatti and Syzran.