Moscow has admitted to heavy casualties suffered in a Ukrainian attack on the Russian-occupied Donetsk region in one of the deadliest attacks on Kremlin forces since the war began more than 10 months ago.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Monday that Ukrainian forces fired rockets at a facility in the eastern Donetsk region where Russian soldiers were stationed, killing 63 of them.
However, the Ukrainian military and pro-Russian social media channels seemed to suggest that several hundred had perished in makeshift barracks set up at a vocational school in the same area.
Ukrainian forces fired six rockets from a HIMARS launch system and two of them were shot down, according to a Russian Defense Ministry statement. He did not say when the strike occurred.
RUSSIAN DRONE SWARM CONTINUES NEW YEAR ASSAULT ON Kyiv
People stand next to the site of a Russian attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, January 2, 2023.
(AP Photo/Renata Brito)
The attack, which used a US-supplied precision weapon that has proven critical in allowing Ukrainian forces to hit key targets, dealt a further setback for Russia, which, in recent months, has been reeling from a Ukrainian counter-offensive. The Ukrainian military has not directly confirmed the attack, but appeared to acknowledge what appeared to be the same attack that was reported by Russian authorities.
The Directorate for Strategic Communications of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said on Sunday that some 400 mobilized Russian soldiers were killed in a vocational school building in Makiivka and about 300 more were injured. That claim could not be independently verified. The Russian statement said the strike occurred “in the Makiivka area” and did not mention the vocational school.
Damaged houses are seen through a broken window, following a Russian attack on New Year’s Eve, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, January 2, 2023.
(AP Photo/Renata Brito)
Meanwhile, Russia deployed multiple explosive drones in another overnight attack on Ukraine, officials said Monday, as the Kremlin showed no sign of budging from its strategy of using bombing strikes to attack the country’s energy infrastructure and wear down Ukrainian resistance to its invasion.
The bombing was the latest in a series of unrelenting New Year’s Eve attacks, including one that killed three civilians on New Year’s Eve.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of “energy terrorism” as aerial bombardments have left many people without heating amid freezing temperatures. Ukrainian officials say Moscow is “wintering” in its effort to demoralize the Ukrainian resistance.
Serhii Kaharlytskyi, right, in front of his house which was destroyed after a Russian attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Monday, January 2, 2023. Kaharlytskyi’s wife, Iryna, was killed in the attack on December 31, 2022.
(AP Photo/Renata Brito)
On Monday, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said 40 drones “headed for Kyiv” overnight. All of them were destroyed, according to the air defense forces. Klitschko said 22 drones were destroyed in Kyiv, three in the Kyiv outlying region and 15 in neighboring provinces.
Power infrastructure facilities were damaged as a result of the attack and an explosion occurred in a district of the city, the mayor said. It was not immediately clear if that was caused by drones or other munitions. An injured 19-year-old man was hospitalized, Klitschko added, and emergency power outages were underway in the capital.
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The full-scale invasion of Moscow on February 24, 2022 went awry, putting pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin as his ground forces struggle to hold their ground and move forward. He said in his New Year’s address to the nation that 2022 was “a year of difficult and necessary decisions.”
Putin insists he had no choice but to send troops to Ukraine because it threatened Russia’s security, a claim condemned by the West, which says Moscow bears full responsibility for the war. Russia is currently observing public holidays until January 8.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
