Relatives of Russian soldiers killed in the Ukrainian attack in Makiivka in eastern Ukraine just after the New Year buried at least nine of them in the Samara region, local authorities said on Sunday.
• Also read: Russia claims it killed more than 600 Ukrainian soldiers in a strike in Kramatorsk
• Also read: Devastating strike in Makiivka: Russian army carries out reprisals in Kramatorsk
• Also read: Ukraine: Makiivka strike death toll rises to 89, critics in Moscow
At least 89 soldiers were killed according to Moscow – many more according to Russian sources and according to Kyiv – in this strike, which moved Russia and was therefore carried out with Himars systems, a weapon supplied to Kyiv by the United States.
Two men were buried in Togliatti on the Volga, according to Mayor Nikolai Rents, who took to social media to celebrate the soldiers who left “to defend the interests of the party, our future and the future of our children.”
Local automaker AvtoVAZ, through one of its officials, Dmitry Mikhalenko, pledged financial support to the two men’s families.
Two other soldiers were buried in the city of Novokuybishevsk, local authorities reported, hailing them as “true heroes”.
“It’s a difficult time for their country and they behaved like real patriots and real men,” Mayor Sergei Markov said.
Five other men were buried in other small towns and villages in central Russia’s Sarama region on Saturday and Sunday.
On Sunday, the Russian army claimed to have bombed two Ukrainian barracks in the town of Kramatorsk in retaliation for the attack on Makiivka.