89 military personnel die in Ukrainian rocket raid – Russian Defence Minister

Russia’s defence ministry, Lieutenant General Sergey Sevryukov, says the Ukrainian rocket raid on a school housing soldiers in Makiivka in the Russian-occupied Donetsk region has claimed the lives of 89 military personnel.

Although the minister blames the recent death toll on its forces’ unauthorised use of mobile phones, Ukrainian reports that further to the number of deaths recorded, about 400 Russian soldiers were killed in the missile attack in the first minutes of New Year’s Day on Sunday.

Russia’s initial admission of 63 deaths was already highly unusual as it marked the most significant loss of life from a single raid confirmed by Moscow since the start of its Ukraine invasion in February 2022. “The number of our dead comrades has gone up to 89. The death toll increased after we found more bodies under rubble in the town of Makiivka,” Sevryukov said.

“Using mobile phones by Russian soldiers was to blame for the attack. It is already apparent that the main reason for what happened was the switching on and massive use, contrary to the prohibition by personnel of mobile phones in a reach zone of enemy weapons. This factor allowed the enemy to track and determine the coordinates of the soldiers’ location for a missile strike,” Sevryukov added.

The devastating attack on a vocational school that was converted into military quarters has spurred anger among Russian nationalists and some legislators who are again questioning the military strategy of Moscow’s commanders in Ukraine.

In a post on the Telegram messaging app, Igor Girkin, a former Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officer who helped to start the initial 2014 war in the Donbas region, said that ammunition and military equipment had been stored in the buildings housing the Russian soldiers, contributing to the strength of the blast. Girkin blamed Russia’s “untrainable” generals for the losses.

Al Jazeera/S.O