Russia is facing internal criticism after the death of 63 soldiers in Ukraine, killed in a Ukrainian attack, the biggest loss in a single attack admitted by Moscow since the start of the invasion.
The Ukrainian general staff confirmed Monday night that it had carried out this attack in Makiivka, a Russian-occupied city located east of the breakaway city of Donetsk, on New Year’s Eve.
In a rare announcement following criticism by Russian war correspondents, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said 63 Russian servicemen were killed in the explosion of “four missiles” in Makiivka. The Russian military has only rarely given an assessment of its offensive or reported its losses.
400 dead Russian soldiers in total?
According to the Defense Ministry, the missiles were fired by HIMARS systems, a weapon supplied by the United States to Ukrainian forces, which hit “a temporary deployment center” of the Russian army in Makiivka.
“Up to 10 units of enemy military equipment of various types were destroyed and damaged,” the General Staff said.
Earlier in the day, the strategic communications department of the Ukrainian armed forces said nearly 400 Russian soldiers had been killed in Makiivka. The General Staff, which did not confirm this figure, stated that it was taking stock of the human “losses”.
“It is dangerous and criminal to consider the enemy as a fool who does not see anything”
The announcement of these heavy losses immediately provoked criticism of the Russian military command, accused in particular by former separatist leader Igor Strelkov, very familiar with the situation on the ground, of having stored ammunition in this unprotected building.
Russia’s increasingly influential war reporters say hundreds of people were killed in an attack on the vocational school in Makiivka and accuse top military commanders of failing to learn the lessons of their past mistakes.
“Ten months after the start of the war, it is dangerous and criminal to consider the enemy a fool who sees nothing,” said Andrey Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Moscow city legislature.
The governor of the Russian region of Samara, Dmitry Azarov, announced the opening of a telephone line for the relatives of the dead soldiers.
Reactions on social networks
On social media, some have accused the Russian authorities of minimizing the death toll.
“My God, who is going to believe the number 63? The building has been completely destroyed,” wrote a Russian, Nina Vernykh, on the main Russian social network VKontakte.
In this social network, Russians were invited to collect clothing, medicine and equipment for the survivors. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, for his part, announced that his army had shot down more than 80 drones since the beginning of 2023. “In the near future, this number could increase,” he said.
The announcement of this strike comes after a New Year marked by the Russian bombing of Kyiv and other cities, which left five dead and dozens injured.
Source: BFM TV
