Russian anger grows over strike that killed dozens of troops in Ukraine

KYIV — Russian nationalists and a few lawmakers have demanded punishment for commanders they accused of ignoring risks as anger grew over the killing of dozens of Russian troopers in one of the Ukraine battle’s deadliest strikes.

In a uncommon disclosure, Russia’s protection ministry mentioned 63 troopers have been killed on New 12 months’s Eve in a fiery blast that destroyed a brief barracks in a vocational faculty in Makiivka, twin metropolis of the Russian-occupied regional capital of Donetsk in jap Ukraine.

Russian critics mentioned the troopers have been being housed alongside an ammunition dump on the web site, which the Russian protection ministry mentioned was hit by 4 rockets fired from US-made HIMARS launchers.

The New 12 months’s Eve strike on Makiivka got here as Russia was launching what have turn into nightly waves of drone assaults on Kyiv and different Ukrainian cities.

Ukrainian officers mentioned Russia had on Monday struck Ukraine-controlled components of the Donetsk area, hitting the village of Yakovlivka, the town of Kramatorsk and destroying an ice rink in the city of Druzhkivka.

Ukraine mentioned the Russian loss of life toll in Makiivka was in the a whole bunch, although pro-Russian officers known as that an exaggeration.

Russian army bloggers mentioned the extent of the destruction was a outcome of storing ammunition in the identical constructing as a barracks, regardless of commanders realizing it was inside vary of Ukrainian rockets.

Igor Girkin, a former commander of pro-Russian troops in jap Ukraine who’s now one of the very best profile Russian nationalist army bloggers, mentioned a whole bunch had been killed or wounded. Ammunition had been saved on the web site and army tools there was uncamouflaged, he mentioned.

“What happened in Makiivka is horrible,” wrote Archangel Spetznaz Z, a Russian army blogger with greater than 700,000 followers on the Telegram messaging app.

“Who came up with the idea to place personnel in large numbers in one building, where even a fool understands that even if they hit with artillery, there will be many wounded or dead?” he wrote. Commanders “couldn’t care less,” he mentioned.

Ukraine virtually by no means publicly claims duty for assaults on Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelensky didn’t handle the Makiivka strike in his nightly speech on Monday.

However the Basic Workers of Ukraine’s Armed Forces reported the Makiivka assault as “a strike on Russian manpower and military equipment”. It didn’t point out casualties, however mentioned 10 items of army tools have been destroyed.

‘STUPID LOSSES’
The fury in Russia prolonged to lawmakers.

Grigory Karasin, a member of the Russian Senate and former deputy international minister, not solely demanded vengeance towards Ukraine and its NATO supporters but in addition “an exacting internal analysis”.

Sergei Mironov, a legislator and former chairman of the Senate, Russia’s higher home, demanded prison legal responsibility for the officers who had “allowed the concentration of military personnel in an unprotected building” and “all the higher authorities who did not provide the proper level of security”.

Unverified footage posted on-line of the aftermath of the blast on the Russian barracks in Makiivka confirmed an enormous constructing diminished to smoking rubble.

Some of the lifeless got here from the southwestern Russian area of Samara, the area’s governor instructed Russian media, urging involved relations to contact recruitment facilities for data.

Andrey Medvedev, deputy speaker of the Moscow Metropolis Duma and a pro-Kremlin journalist, mentioned authorities, whether or not civilian or army, should worth Russian lives.

“Either a person is of the highest value — and then punish for stupid losses of personnel, as for treason to the fatherland — or the country is over,” Mr. Medvedev wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

A Russian-backed army data middle in the Donetsk area mentioned there had been 69 Ukrainian assaults on the area, together with Makiivka, on Monday.

‘BANKING ON EXHAUSTION’
Having suffered defeats on the battlefield in the second half of 2022, Russia resorted to mass air strikes towards Ukrainian cities.

Ukraine mentioned on Monday it had shot down all 39 drones Russia had launched in a 3rd evening of air strikes on civilian targets in Kyiv and different cities.

Ukrainian officers mentioned their success proved that Russia’s tactic in latest months of raining down missiles and drones to knock out Ukraine’s power infrastructure was more and more failing as Kyiv beefs up its air defenses.

Russia denies focusing on civilians in what it calls a particular army operation towards its southern neighbor launched on Feb. 24.

After firing dozens of missiles on Dec. 31, Russia launched greater than 80 Iranian-made Shahed drones on Jan. 1 and Jan. 2, all of which had been shot down, Mr. Zelensky mentioned, including that Russia was planning a protracted marketing campaign of such assaults to “exhaust” Ukraine.

“It is probably banking on exhaustion. Exhausting our people, our anti-aircraft defenses, our energy,” Mr. Zelensky mentioned in his nightly video handle.

Ukraine, he mentioned, needed to “act and do everything so that the terrorists’ fail in their aim, as all their others have failed”. — Reuters

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