Lrussia has admitted its heaviest military losses in a single attack in Ukraine with the death of at least 89 soldiers in a strike on Makiivka in the east of the country. Early Monday afternoon, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced, in an extremely rare admission, that 63 of its soldiers had been killed in a strike carried out using a Himars missile system, a weapon supplied by the United States to Ukraine in its fight against Moscow and which allows deep bombardments, far behind enemy lines. The death toll rose to 89 dead in the evening.
“The number of our dead comrades has reached 89,” General Sergei Sevryukov said in a video statement released by the Russian Defense Ministry. “New bodies have been discovered in the ruins,” he explained. “A commission is currently investigating the circumstances” of the attack, he added. “But it is already evident that the main cause […] is the switching on and massive use by personnel of mobile phones within range of enemy weapons, contrary to the ban,” the general explained.
Also according to General Sergei Sevriukov, the attack took place at 00:01 on the 1er January (22:01 GMT Saturday 31 December) against a temporary base in Makiïvka.
One of the strongholds in the hands of pro-Russian separatists
The city of Makiivka, located in territory occupied for a long time by Moscow, east of that of Donetsk, is one of the strongholds in the hands of pro-Russian separatists since their conflict with kyiv began in 2014. According to the spokesman of the Russian Ministry of Defense, Igor Konashenkov, who did not give a date for this strike, four missiles targeted “a temporary deployment center” of the army. Two other rockets were shot down, he said.
This announcement is exceptional: it is not only the heaviest toll in a single attack admitted by Moscow since the beginning of its invasion in February, but it also represents the first communication on military losses since September, when the Minister of Defence, Sergei Shoigu, had mentioned 5,937 dead in the ranks of the Russian army.
READ ALSOHow Putin Violates the Law of War
Ukraine reports 400 dead and 300 injured
Ukraine, which admitted having carried out this strike by giving the date of December 31, before the New Year, for its part advanced contradictory information on the losses of the Russian army in Makiïvka. The strategic communications department of the Ukrainian army spoke on Telegram, in particularly flowery language, of a toll of 400 dead and 300 wounded. More sober, the staff indicated that it had no definitive information on the number of Russian victims, also quantifying at “up to 10” the number of military vehicles “of all types” destroyed in this bombardment. “Loss in terms of personnel for the occupants is being specified,” he added in a Facebook post on Monday.
READ ALSOUkrainian soldiers testify
The Russian army did not explain the reason for this particularly heavy toll. The Ukrainian forces simply referred to a “concentration zone” of soldiers in Makiivka. On Sunday, Russian and Ukrainian media had begun to report on this strike, claiming that the building affected was hosting Russian conscripts, therefore non-professional soldiers. A source within the local separatist authorities told Russia’s state-run Tass news agency that the bombing was made possible by “extensive use by the newly arrived military of their cell phones”, which would have enabled them to geolocation by the Ukrainian army.
READ ALSO“If I return, they kill me”: the testimony of a Wagner mercenary captured in Ukraine
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. “Almost all the military equipment, which was near the building without the slightest sign of camouflage, was also destroyed,” he wrote on Telegram, estimating the number of victims at “several hundred”. According to the Telegram channel “Rybar”, one of the main pro-Russian sources on the war in Ukraine, the building housed 600 people.
Russian army targeted by critics at home
The announcement of these losses caused a shock in Russia, but also criticism towards the Russian military command, already embarrassed by a series of humiliating defeats on the Ukrainian front 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 Russian army officers.
READ ALSOWar in Ukraine: Bakhmout, field of ruins
“Why do we continue to install (the mobilized) in hotels, hostels and vocational schools? asks the Russian war correspondent Alexandre Kots. Igor Strelkov warns him that such a deadly strike can happen again “at any time”, regretting that the Russian generals are “unable to learn in principle”.
READ ALSOOn the Ukrainian front, the winter of all dangers Unusually in Russia, where the public authorities remain discreet about military losses in Ukraine, 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.