Moscow is reviewing its figures. The death toll from the Ukrainian strike on New Year’s Eve on a building where Russian soldiers were gathered in Makiivka has risen to 89 dead, the Russian Defense Ministry announced on Tuesday evening.
“The number of our dead comrades has reached 89,” said General Sergei Sevrioukov. New bodies were discovered in the ruins, he said. According to the Russians, the attack took place at 00:01 on January 1 against a temporary base.
A rare admission from Moscow
“At present, a commission is investigating the circumstances” of the attack on this Ukrainian city under Russian occupation in the Donetsk region, which Moscow is claiming annexation. “But it is already clear that the main cause (…) is the switching on and massive use by personnel of mobile phones within range of enemy weapons, contrary to the prohibition”, explained the general.
This announcement is exceptional: it is not only the heaviest toll in a single attack admitted by Moscow since the beginning of its invasion, but it also represents the first communication on military losses since September, when Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu had mentioned 5,937 dead in the ranks of the Russian army. On Monday, his ministry admitted that 63 soldiers had died in this strike carried out using a HIMARS missile launcher system, a weapon provided by Washington to kyiv in its fight against Moscow and which allows deep bombardments, far behind enemy lines.
kyiv evokes a much higher balance sheet.
Ukraine, which admitted having carried out this strike by giving the date of December 31, for its part advanced contradictory information. The strategic communications department of the Ukrainian army thus evoked, in particularly flowery language, a balance sheet of 400 dead and 300 wounded.
More sober, the staff indicated that it had no definitive information on the number of victims, also quantifying at “up to ten” the number of military vehicles “of all types” destroyed in this bombardment.
Russian criticism against the military command
According to former separatist commander Igor Strelkov, very familiar with the situation on the ground, the building which housed the Russian soldiers was completely destroyed by the strike because ammunition was stored there. He further estimated the number of victims at “several hundred”. And according to the Telegram channel “Rybar”, one of the main pro-Russian sources on the war, the building housed 600 people.
The announcement of these losses caused a shock in Russia, but also criticism towards the military command, already embarrassed by a series of humiliating defeats in recent months. “Despite several months of war, certain conclusions have still not been drawn,” observes blogger Boris Rojine, close to pro-Russian Ukrainian separatist circles, castigating the “incompetence” of senior officers.
Unusually in Russia, around 200 people gathered with the approval of the authorities in Samara (center), where some of the soldiers killed were from. Some laid flowers in front of an eternal flame in one of the city’s main squares, before bowing respectfully. According to local media, rallies were also taking place in other cities in the region, notably in Togliatti and Syzran.