Anger in Russia as scores of troops killed in one of war's deadliest strikes

 

Ukrainian military prepare to fire a mortar round, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in region of Donetsk, Ukraine, December 31, 2022. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne

One of the most deadly strikes of the Ukraine War was recognized by Russia on Monday, leading to calls from nationalist bloggers for the punishment of commanders who housed soldiers next to a munitions stockpile.

 

According to the Russian defense ministry, 63 servicemen perished in the catastrophic explosion that leveled a temporary barracks in a former vocational college in Makiivka, the twin city of the regional capital of Donetsk that is under Russian occupation.

 

According to Russian military bloggers, many of whom have followings in the hundreds of thousands, the massive destruction was caused by ammunition being kept in a barracks when it was within the firing range of Ukrainian rockets.

 

Separately, Ukraine declared on Monday that it had destroyed all 39 of the drones that Russia had sent into the air during an unprecedented third consecutive night of airstrikes against civilian targets in Kyiv and other cities.

 

According to Ukrainian officials, their accomplishment demonstrated that Russia's strategy of launching airstrikes in the past several months to destroy Ukraine's energy infrastructure was rapidly failing as Kyiv strengthened its air defenses.

 

'EACH MISTAKE HAS A NAME'

Unverified footage posted online of the aftermath of the Makiivka strike on the Russian barracks showed a huge building reduced to smoking rubble.

 

Igor Girkin, a former commander of pro-Russian troops in east Ukraine who has emerged as one of the highest profile Russian nationalist military bloggers, said the death toll was in the hundreds, later editing his post to include wounded in that figure. Ammunition had been stored at the site and Russian military equipment there was uncamouflaged, he said.

 

Another nationalist blogger, Rybar, said around 70 soldiers were confirmed dead and more than 100 wounded.

 

"What happened in Makiivka is horrible," wrote Archangel Spetznaz Z, another Russian military blogger with more than 700,000 followers on Telegram.

 

"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" about ammunition stored in disarray on the battlefield, he said.

 

"Each mistake has a name."

 

Russia's acknowledgement of scores of deaths in one incident was almost without precedent. Moscow rarely releases figures for its casualties, and when it does the figures are typically low - it acknowledged just one death from among a crew of hundreds when Ukraine sank its flagship cruiser Moskva in April.

 

Russia has seen in the new year with nightly attacks on Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, hundreds of kilometres from the front lines. The nightly attacks mark a change in tactics, after months in which Moscow usually spaced such strikes around a week apart.

 

After firing dozens of missiles on Dec. 31, Russia launched dozens of Iranian-made Shahed drones on Jan. 1 and Jan. 2. But Kyiv said on Monday it had shot down all 39 drones in the latest wave, including 22 shot down over the capital.

 

Kyiv said the new tactic was a sign of Russia's desperation as Ukraine's ability to defend its air space had improved.

 

"Now they are looking for routes and attempts to hit us somehow, but their terror tactics will not work. Our sky will turn into a shield," presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak said on Telegram.

 

In his latest nightly speech, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy praised Ukrainians for showing gratitude to the troops and one another and said Russia's efforts would prove useless.

 

"Drones, missiles, everything else will not help them," he said of the Russians. "Because we stand united. They are united only by fear."

 

Ukraine's air defence systems worked through the night to bring down incoming drones and to warn communities of the approaching danger.

 

"It is loud in the region and in the capital: night drone attacks," Kyiv Governor Oleksiy Kuleba said.

 

Since suffering devastating defeats on the battlefield in the second half of 2022, Russia has resorted to massive airstrikes against Ukrainian cities.

 

It claims that its attacks, which during the winter have left millions without heat and electricity, are meant to weaken Kiev's fighting prowess. Ukraine claims that the attacks are a war crime because they are meant to harm civilians and serve no military purpose.

 

Since Putin gave the order to invade Ukraine in February, Russia has destroyed Ukrainian towns, killed thousands of citizens, and invaded large portions of the country, labeling Ukraine an artificial state whose pro-Western stance jeopardized Russia's security.

Ukraine has fought back with Western military support, driving Russian forces from more than half the territory they seized. In recent weeks, the front lines have been largely static, with thousands of soldiers dying in intense warfare.

 

In a stern New Year's Eve message filmed in front of a group of people dressed in military uniform, Putin vowed no let-up in his war.

 

"The main thing is the fate of Russia," Putin said. "Defence of the fatherland is our sacred duty to our ancestors and descendants. Moral, historical righteousness is on our side."

 Source: Reuters