CNN
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clearly Ukraine strike In Russia-occupied eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian forces, pro-Russian military bloggers and former officials say dozens of Russian troops have been killed.
According to both Ukrainian and pro-Russian testimony, the strike took place after midnight on New Year’s Sunday at a vocational school housing Russian conscripts in Makyivka, Donetsk region.
The attack led to vocal criticism of the Moscow military by pro-Russian military bloggers. They claim the army lacked protection and was reportedly quartered next to a large ammunition depot. His HIMARS rocket in Ukraine is said to have exploded when it hit a school. .
The Ukrainian military had previously claimed about 400 Russian soldiers had been killed and another 300 wounded, but said late Monday that the number of Russian soldiers killed in Makyivka had been “revealed”. told to He did not directly acknowledge his role in the strike. CNN cannot independently verify these figures or the weapons used in the attacks.
Some pro-Russian military bloggers estimate the number of dead and wounded could be in the hundreds.
The Russian Defense Ministry confirmed the attack on Monday, claiming 63 Russian servicemen were killed.
Russian Senator Grigory Karashin said the people responsible for the killing of Russian soldiers in Makyivka must be found, the Russian state news agency TASS reported on Monday.
Karasin, chairman of the Federal Council’s International Affairs Committee, said death should never be forgotten.
Video of the attack site was reportedly widely circulated on Telegram, including official Ukrainian military channels. It shows a pile of smoking debris where most of the building doesn’t seem to stand.
The Strategic Communications Office of the Supreme Commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said on Telegram that it “greeted and congratulated” the separatists and conscripts “taken to occupied Makyovka and crammed into a vocational school building.” “Santa packed about 400 corpses [Russian soldiers] in a bag. ”
The Russian Defense Ministry said the Ukrainian attack used US-made HIMARS rockets.
“Apparently, the high command is not yet aware of the capabilities of this weapon,” Daniil Bessonov, a former senior official in the Russian-backed Donetsk regime, told Telegram.
“I hope that those responsible for the decision to use this facility will be reprimanded,” Bezonov said. I have.”
Russian propagandist Igor Gurkin, who blogs about the war effort on Telegram, claimed the building was almost completely destroyed by a secondary explosion of an ammunition depot.
“Nearly all military equipment that was near the building without any trace of camouflage was also destroyed,” Gherkin said. “There are no final casualty figures yet, as many people are still missing.”
Gherkin has long accused the Russian general, whom he claims is directing the war effort far from the front lines. Gherkin, formerly defense minister of the self-proclaimed Russian-backed Donetsk People’s Republic, was convicted by a Dutch mass murder court of involvement in the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014.
Another pro-Russian military blogger, Sergey Markov, said that the Russian military command had acted “very sloppily”.
Boris Rozin, who also blogs about the war effort under the nickname Colonel Cassad, said that “incompetence and inability to grasp the experience of the war continue to be a serious problem.”
“As you can see, despite several months of war, some conclusions have not been reached, so unnecessary losses would have occurred if basic precautions were taken regarding the dispersion and concealment of personnel. I may not have.”
Donetsk has been ruled by pro-Russian separatists since 2014 and is one of four Ukrainian regions Moscow sought annexation in October in violation of international law.
The news comes after the Ukrainian military said more than 700 Russian soldiers were killed on Saturday, but did not specify the location.
The Russian army “has killed 760 people yesterday alone and[and]continues to try to attack Bakhmut,” an army chief said on Sunday.
Russian troops have been on the offensive towards the city of Bakhmut in Donetsk for months, but have suffered heavy losses as Ukrainian forces targeted them in largely open rural territory.
Air raid sirens blared across Ukraine over the weekend as new rounds of Russian missile strikes hit several areas. The attack killed at least six people in the Donetsk, Kharkiv and Chernihiv regions and injured a man early Monday morning.
