Russia claims to kill 600 Ukrainian soldiers in retaliation for Ukraine’s New Year’s Eve missile strike on Russian barracks

Russia claims to kill 600 Ukrainian soldiers in retaliation for Ukraine’s New Year’s Eve missile strike on Russian barracks
Photos released on social media claim to show dozens of bodies of Russian soldiers killed in fighting around Bakhmut. / bne IntelliNews
By bne IntelliNews January 9, 2023

Russia's Defence Ministry said that the country's armed forces killed more than 600 Ukrainian servicemen in a rocket strike on temporary bases in Kramatorsk on January 6 in retaliation for a Ukrainian missile strike on a Russian barrack on New Year’s Eve that reportedly killed 400 Russian servicemen.

"In response to an illicit strike inflicted by Kyiv’s regime on a temporary Russian military base in the settlement of Makeyevka [Makiivka] of the Donetsk People’s Republic in the first minutes of January 2023 the command of the united group of Russian military forces conducted a retaliation operation," Russian Defence Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov said in televised comments.

Ukraine’s authorities denied the Russian report of high casualties.

The Russian MoD claimed the retaliatory strike had targeted several temporary Ukrainian deployment points in Kramatorsk, Donetsk Oblast, and killed over 600 Ukrainian personnel.

However, the Institute of War reports that this claim is false. A Finnish reporter visited the site of the strike in Kramatorsk on January 8 and noted that it had hit an empty school and that no one had been killed.

Konashenkov announced that Russian intelligence had targeted the bases and carried out the strike in retaliation for an attack by Ukrainian forces on a Russian military base in Makiivka on January 1.

"Over the past day, Russian intelligence means detected and reliably confirmed through various independent channels some temporary bases of Ukrainian servicemen in Kramatorsk," the spokesman said. "As a result of a massive rocket strike on these temporary bases of Ukrainian units, more than 600 Ukrainian servicemen were killed," the spokesman said, as cited by Tass.

Ukraine’s defence ministry claimed that some 400 Russians were killed in the strike, whereas the Russian authorities said the death toll was a lower 89 Russian servicemen killed.

According to Konashenkov, over 700 Ukrainian servicemen were at dormitory No. 28 and more than 600 were at dormitory No. 47 in Kramatorsk at the time of the strike.

Both sides in the conflict are prone to exaggerate their successes and play down their losses. However, fighting remains intense.

Over the weekend, video of a Russia incendiary attack reportedly on Kherson was released. The video shows what appears to be the use of phosphorus on residential areas in the city, which is banned.

Separately pictures showing a battlefield, reportedly outside the town of Bakhmut in the Donbas, which is the epicentre of fighting, were released online that show a field strewn with what are claimed to be the corpses of Russian soldiers. The post claimed that Russia Private Military Company Wagner is sending in troops in “suicide missions” against the town, which is currently held by Ukraine’s forces.

 

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