Russia on Sunday claimed to have killed more than 600 Ukrainian soldiers in Kramatorsk, without giving a date. But on the ground no sign of casualties or property damage in the meaning described by Moscow.
The conflict between Russia and Ukraine is also taking place in the information sphere. Moscow said on Sunday it had killed “more than 600 Ukrainian soldiers” after carrying out attacks on military barracks in Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine.
Moscow spoke of a “retaliatory strike” after the Ukrainian bombardment that killed at least 89 Russian soldiers on January 1. But the veracity of Moscow’s claimed Ukrainian losses raises questions.
Heard of strikes by Kramatorsk residents
Blown windows and craters are clearly visible in Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine, where the Russian army says it has carried out rocket attacks, BFMTV saw on the ground.
Vasyle, a resident of the city, confirms to our camera that he heard knocking during the night from Saturday to Sunday.
“In the evening there were strong explosions, the windows shook,” he says.
For their part, Ukrainian local authorities confirm that seven rockets fell on Kramatorsk. Two more missiles were aimed at the nearby town of Kostyantynivka.
However, this damage seems far from what Russia claimed. “In response to the criminal strike of the Kiev regime in the first minutes of January 2023 (…) the Russian armed forces carried out a retaliatory operation. More than 600 Ukrainian soldiers were killed,” the spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday.
No sign of victims
There is also no sign of victims on site. It is impossible to confirm that the military barracks that Moscow allegedly attacked are actually military installations. Also, the Kramatorsk residents traversed by our team do not appear to be concerned or alarmed by these strikes.
“There were a number of explosions,” admits one of them, named Mykhaïlo. “There’s really nothing more to say, just a normal day,” he adds.
Ukraine rejects Russian demands
After Russia claimed on Sunday it had killed several hundred Ukrainian soldiers, a Ukrainian military official denied the “retaliatory strikes”.
Kyiv claims that no casualties were recorded in the shooting of Kramatorsk and that not even a military barracks in that city was hit by a Russian attack.
“Russian troops are not capable of delivering high-precision strikes,” a spokesman for the Ukrainian Army’s Eastern Command Serguii Tcherevaty told Suspilne Media.
He denounces a simple Russian “communications operation” aimed at reassuring the population and responding to criticism.
“A Battle of Press Releases”
“We are in a battle of press releases,” analyzes General Vincent Desportes for BFMTV, former director of the School of War and professor of strategy at Sciences Po and HEC. “The basis of war is that all communication is political. We know that the first casualty of war is the truth,” he says.
Extremely rarely, Russia admitted to suffering significant casualties against Ukrainian troops, losing 89 soldiers in a January 1 strike. However, according to international journalists and the Ukrainian authorities, this number is underestimated. They, for their part, report several hundred deaths.