Allegedly 14 dead in Luhansk
Moscow accuses Kyiv of targeted HIMARS attack on clinic
1/28/2023 6:03 p.m
The Russian Defense Ministry wants to recognize a “serious war crime by the Kiev regime” in an attack it postulates, for which it is initially unable to provide any evidence. Accordingly, Ukrainian troops are said to have targeted a hospital with US rocket launchers.
The Russian Defense Ministry has accused the Ukrainian armed forces of targeting a hospital in the Luhansk region. The ministry in Moscow announced in the evening – around ten hours after the alleged incident – that the hospital in Nowoaydar had been fired upon by a US HIMARS multiple rocket launcher.
14 people were killed and 24 patients and clinic staff were injured. The Luhansk region is largely occupied by Russia. The information could not be independently verified. The ministry initially published neither videos nor photos of the impact, which is said to have happened in the morning.
The ministry accused the Ukrainian armed forces of a “deliberate missile strike” against the civilian hospital, which was a “serious war crime by the Kiev regime”. The authorities did not initially publish any evidence. Those responsible would be found and held accountable, the statement said.
In the evening, Russian state television published unverifiable images showing a destroyed building. A board with the opening hours of the clinic was also displayed. No ambulances could be seen in the video footage. There was initially no reaction from Ukraine to the allegations. Russia has largely occupied the Luhansk region, which is why Ukrainian forces are trying to liberate the region using Western weapons.
Large Moscow contingent in Luhansk
According to the US Institute for War Studies (ISW), Russia’s strategic deployment of various armed forces points to a major offensive in Luhansk in the near future. The presence of conventional forces along the front there, as well as the fact that there have been only limited attacks on fronts in other areas, suggests that Russian forces are preparing for a “crucial effort” in Luhansk, the Washington-based think tank said in their latest report on Wednesday (local time). A number of intelligence statements support this assessment.
The isolated attacks elsewhere served to distract and disperse the Ukrainian forces. The US institute described an attack along the axis between the towns of Swatowe and Kreminna as the most likely course of the Russian offensive. This attack was therefore supposed to advance through the major logistics centers of the cities of Luhansk and Starobilsk to the border of the administrative region, where it would eventually conquer the parts of the region that are still under Ukrainian control.
Russia may be hoping to launch further attacks into the Kharkiv region from the Swatove-Kreminna line and recapture critical terrain north of Donetsk. “However, it is extremely unlikely that Russian forces will be able to gain significant ground on this axis, even if they launch a successful attack in this sector,” the report said.