WRAPUP 8. Anger in Russia after scores of soldiers were killed in one the deadliest attacks on Ukraine.
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Sixty=three Russian soldiers are killed in a barracks explosion – Moscow
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Russians announce new tactic after third night of terrorist attacks
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Ukraine: Russian aerial strikes fail
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The New Year Speech of Stern Putin signals no slowdown
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Zelenskiy says Ukraine stands united against invaders
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New Year is tough for the front-line trenches of Ukraine
Pavel Polityuk
KYIV, Jan 2, (Reuters – Russia has admitted that scores of its soldiers were killed in the Ukraine war’s most fatal strikes. The revelations drew criticisms from Russian nationalist bloggers who demanded punishment for commanders for housing troops alongside an ammunition dump.
Russia’s defense ministry stated that 63 soldiers died in the firebomb blast that destroyed a temporary barracks at a former vocational college Makiivka. This is the twin city of Donetsk, the Russian-occupied region capital in eastern Ukraine.
It claimed that four rockets from U.S. HIMARS launchers had struck the accommodation. Two rockets were also reported as having been downed. Kyiv claimed that the Russian death toll was hundreds, but pro-Russian officials said this was an exaggeration.
Russian military bloggers stated that the destruction was caused by ammunition being stored in the same structure as a barracks despite commanders knowing it was within firing range of Ukrainian rockets.
Separately on Monday, Ukraine announced that it had destroyed all 39 Russian drones fired during a third consecutive night of air strikes on civilian targets in Kyiv.
According to Ukrainian officials, their success proves that Russia’s tactics in recent months of using air strikes against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure has been failing more and more as Kyiv increases its air defenses.
“EACH MISTAKE HAS AN NAME”
Online footage of the aftermath to the strike in Makiivka on Russian barracks showed an enormous building reduced to smoke and rubble.
Igor Girkin was a former commander in pro-Russian troops in east Ukraine and is now one of Russia’s most prominent military bloggers. He claimed that hundreds of people were injured or killed in the blast. He stated that ammunition was stored at the site, and that there was no camouflage for military equipment.
Rybar, another nationalist blogger, stated that around 70 soldiers had been killed and more than 100 were wounded.
“What happened to Makiivka was horrible,” said Archangel Spetznaz Z (another Russian military blogger) with over 700,000 Telegram followers.
“Who thought of the idea of putting personnel in large numbers together in one building where even fools can see that even if they use artillery, there will still be many dead or wounded?” He wrote. He stated that commanders would not be bothered by ammunition found in disarray at the frontline.
The fury was extended to legislators.
Grigory Karasin, a Russian Senator and former deputy foreign Minister, demanded not only vengeance against Ukraine or its NATO supporters, but also “an exacting inner analysis”.
Sergei Mironov was a Russian legislator and ex-chairman of the Senate. He demanded criminal prosecution for those officials who “allowed the concentration military personnel in an unsafe building” and all the “higher authorities who failed to provide adequate security.”
Telegram: “Obviously neither intelligence nor antiintelligence nor air defence works properly,” he stated in a Telegram post.
Russia almost never acknowledged the existence of multiple deaths in one incident. Moscow doesn’t release statistics on casualties very often, and those that do are usually low. For example, it only acknowledged one death in the crew of hundreds who drowned when Ukraine sank its flagship cruiser Moskva.
Russia has been waging nightly attacks against Ukrainian cities in the new year, including Kyiv. These attacks are hundreds of kilometres away from the frontlines. After months of arranging strikes about a week apart, this is a shift in tactics.
Russia had fired several missiles on Dec. 31 and launched many Iranian-made Shahed aircraft on Jan. 1. Kyiv claimed Monday that it had destroyed all 39 drones, including 22 of those over the capital.
Kyiv claimed that Russia was using this tactic to show its desperation, as Ukraine’s airspace defense capabilities had improved.
“Now they’re looking for ways to get at us, and their terror tactics won’t work,” he said. Telegram: Presidential chief of staff Andriy Yaermak stated that the sky would become a shield.
In his nightly address, President Volodymyr Zilenskiy stated that Russia’s efforts would be futile. Russians will not be helped by drones, missiles or any other means, he stated. We stand together because we are united. They are only united by fear
Ukraine’s air defense system worked all night to bring down drones and alert communities about the imminent danger.
Since suffering defeats at the battlefield in the second quarter of 2022, Russia has used mass air strikes to attack Ukrainian cities.
It claims that its attacks, which have cut off heat and power to millions of people in winter, are intended to limit Kyiv’s ability to fight. Ukraine insists that the attacks have no military purpose, and are only intended to cause harm to civilians.
Russia has annexed vast swathes Ukraine and killed thousands of civilians since Putin’s invasion in February. Putin called Ukraine an artificial country whose pro-Western outlook threatened Russia’s safety.
With Western military support, Ukraine has fought back against Russian aggression and drove Russian forces from over half of their territory. The front lines have remained largely stationary in recent weeks with many soldiers being killed in fierce warfare. (Reporting from Reuters bureaux; Writing and editing by Peter Graff. Lidia Kelly. Dan Peleschuk. Clarence Fernandez. Alexandra Hudson. Mark Heinrich.