CNN —
It was New Year’s Eve, one of the most popular holidays in Russia. Recruits in President Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine – hundreds of whom were mobilized a few months ago – have been housed in a makeshift barracks, a vocational school in the occupied town of Makiivka in the Donetsk region. Next door was a large ammunition depot.
The soldiers missed their wives, their families, so they turned on their cell phones and called home. Suddenly, HIMARS missiles, precision satellite-guided weapons supplied by the United States to Ukraine, hit the school, almost completely destroying it and igniting the ammunition dump.
This is how the Russian military, at least officially, explains the deadliest known attack on Russian forces in Ukraine since the war began in February 2022. The Defense Ministry blamed the troops themselves, claiming that the “main cause” of the attack was the use of cell phones “contrary to the ban.” . Russian troops are banned from using personal cell phones in the field as their signals have been geolocated to target and kill other Russian forces.
But that statement, and the details of the attack that have surfaced, have sparked an extraordinarily public national blame game among Russians.
It started with the death toll. The Russian Defense Ministry initially said 63 soldiers had been killed, then increased that number to 89. Ukraine claimed it was around 400. But even Russian pro-war bloggers, an increasingly influential element in how Russian civilians get their information on what’s really happening in Ukraine, dismissed the official count, estimating that hundreds of soldiers had died. The true number is not yet known.
One of those bloggers, Semyon Pegov, who uses the online moniker “War Gonzo” and was recently awarded a medal by Vladimir Putin, also dismissed the military’s claim about cell phones, calling it a “blatant attempt to smear blame.” .
Another blogger, Gray Zone, called the cellphone statement a “99 percent lie,” an attempt to evade responsibility. He said it was more of an intelligence failure.
Russian lawmakers intervened, demanding an investigation into who ordered so many troops temporarily housed in an unprotected building. Sergey Mironov, a prominent politician and party leader, said there should be “personal criminal liability” for any officers or other military personnel who made the decision. And while implying that the military was taking a lax approach to war, he warned, “It’s time to realize that things won’t be the way they used to be.”
“This is a fight for the future of Russia,” Mironov said. “We have to win!”
Mironov’s comments struck a chord. Hardliners like him believe that Putin’s “partial mobilization” of reservists in September, which called up 300,000 men, did not go far enough. They want full mobilization that would put the whole country on a war base. And they want revenge on Ukraine.
So far, however, nobody – at least publicly – blames Vladimir Putin for the deaths. Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of state international broadcaster RT and a regular on domestic Russian TV talk shows, said she hopes “the officials responsible will be held accountable” and their names released. But she also hinted that the attack could stoke public discontent: “It is high time to understand that impunity does not lead to social harmony. Impunity leads to more crime and, as a result, public dissent.”
Many of the soldiers who died in Makiivka came from Samara, a city on the Volga River in southwestern Russia, and the families of those killed mourn the loss of loved ones, bringing red carnations to a rare public memorial service while priests led people to prayer and a choir sang the liturgy for the young men recently sent to the front.
The Defense Ministry’s admission that a significant number of mobilized troops were killed in the attack, as well as the open debate among military bloggers, are signs that the Kremlin is taking the Makiivka attack very seriously. Finally, the Putin government has the ability to stop reporting on events that it does not want the public to know about.
Even in this “open” discussion, several commentators have raised the possibility that “whistle-blowers” may have tipped off the enemy, a popular conspiracy theory often espoused by Russia’s state propaganda outlets. Then there’s the usual complaint after almost every tragedy in Russia to pin the blame on “Khalatnost”: negligence.
But the blame so far is placed only on the military leaders, no higher. President Putin has not publicly commented on Makiivka’s attack, a strong sign that he intends to stay as far away from an apparent debacle as possible.