A Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian town of Kramatorsk caused damage but didn’t destroy any buildings, a Portal witness said on Sunday, who also found no obvious signs of casualties there, as Russia claimed to have killed 600 Ukrainian soldiers in the operation.
Portal journalists were able to visit the scene of the two university dormitories that the Russian Defense Ministry said were temporarily housing Ukrainian soldiers near the front lines at the time of Saturday night’s strike on Sunday.
No directly affected buildings
None of the buildings appeared to have been hit directly by the rockets or sustained serious damage. There was no sign that soldiers were billeted there, and there were no corpses or traces of blood to be seen there. In one of the buildings, located near a courtyard with a deep crater, part of the windows were broken, while the other building identified by the Russian Ministry of Defense was completely intact.
Another crater could be observed 50 meters away. Ukrainian authorities did not immediately comment on the strikes or Russian claims about the toll. The mayor of Kramatorsk previously denied there were any casualties. Russia’s Defense Ministry said Sunday it had killed more than 600 Ukrainian soldiers in a massive rocket attack on buildings used as temporary housing for Ukrainian troops in eastern Ukraine.
no truce
As the unilateral ceasefire decreed by Mosou for the Orthodox Christmas celebrations ended on Saturday night, Russian authorities said they had decided to close Kramatorsk in retaliation after the deadly attack on barracks troops in Makiivka in the Donetsk-controlled region earlier in the year met by Russian troops who killed at least 89 people.
Such a tribute would have been Russia’s deadliest attack on Ukrainian troops since Russia began invading Ukraine on February 24.
Two thermal power plants in Ukraine’s Donetsk region were also damaged by rocket fire from the Ukrainian army, Moscow-appointed politicians and the Russian state news agency TASS reported on Sunday morning. Officials added on their Telegram accounts that the attack on Zuhres and Novyi Svit power plants also caused casualties.
Two dead according to local officials
According to TASS, two people could still be trapped in the rubble at one of the two locations. Initially, no statement could be obtained from the Ukrainian authorities. These never claim their offensives on Russian soil or in Ukrainian areas under Russian control.
Despite the 36-hour ceasefire, shelling rang out in the Ukrainian city of Bakhmout on Saturday. Ukraine saw this as evidence that Russian promises were not being kept, while Moscow said it had responded to Ukrainian fire. The Russian high command has promised to intensify fighting until it defeats its neighbor.
According to local officials, at least two people were killed in Russian shelling in eastern Ukraine on Saturday night. The conflict in Ukraine has so far claimed tens of thousands of lives and several million refugees.