On the night of December 31, according to the Ukrainian authorities, four long-range missiles hit an old school that had been housing Russian soldiers for several months.
During this raid, no less than 63 Russian soldiers lost their lives, the Russian authorities announced on Monday.
A rather rare fact on the part of the Kremlin than to communicate on its own military losses.
Following this attack, the human toll of which is considered underestimated by some Ukrainian officials, numerous internal criticisms were addressed to the Russian authorities, some speaking of the “incompetence” of the senior officers of the Russian army.
20 Minutes
returns to this unprecedented Ukrainian bombardment.
On Monday, Ukraine launched several missiles towards Makïivka, a town east of Donetsk, a pro-Russian stronghold since Maiden's revolution in 2014. The strikes hit a former school housing Russian soldiers, causing at least 63 dead.
Rather rare since the beginning of the conflict more than 300 days ago, the Russian authorities have themselves recognized these heavy human losses.
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 Defense Sergei Choigou had mentioned 5,937 dead in the ranks of the Russian army.
20 minutes
returns to the stakes of this unprecedented strike by Ukraine.
What happened early Monday afternoon?
While kyiv and other main cities of the country had suffered several simultaneous strikes in the night from Sunday to Monday, at midday, the Russian Ministry of Defense communicated the death of 63 of its soldiers during a Ukrainian tactical strike in Makiivka , in territory long occupied by Moscow.
Ukrainian forces fired six missiles, four of which hit their target, Telegram Ukraine Now reported.
This bombardment was carried out using a HIMARS missile launcher system, a weapon supplied by the United States to Ukraine, allowing bombardments far behind enemy lines.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov, who did not give a precise time of the strike, said the four missiles targeted a "temporary deployment center" of the army, originally a vocational school. .
On the spot, according to the Ukrainian authorities, hundreds of Russian soldiers, mainly reservists, were stationed.
According to the former separatist commander Igor Strelkov, very aware of the situation on the ground, such damage could have been caused to these infrastructures because they housed “without the slightest sign of camouflage” a stock of ammunition.
According to Ukrainian authorities, a large diesel fuel tank near the site was also targeted.
What are the Ukrainian reactions after this strike?
For its part, Ukraine fully claims this bombardment, dating it to Saturday evening, during the passage of the New Year.
However, their advanced figures on Russian military losses after their attack are contradictory with those of the Russians, believing that the latter "considerably underestimate the losses", as described by the Telegram channel Ukraine Now.
Reportedly, the moment of the HIMARS strike on Russian barracks in Makiivka as seen from a nearby building.
The attack took place during Putin's New Year address at around 23:00 EET on 31 December 2022.https://t.co/h6ceHVAi7v
📹https://t.co/Cxiu4YSY4V pic.twitter.com/vmNCK9jRRW
— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) January 2, 2023
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Indeed, the strategic communications department of the Ukrainian army mentioned on Telegram “several hundred mobilized […] eliminated at once” and speaks of more than 400 dead and 300 wounded.
Other sources put the figure even higher, up to 600 Russians killed.
Information to put into perspective, according to Steve Rosenberg, editor-in-chief of the BBC on Russia, "the figures [being] lower than those announced by Ukraine".
More reserved, the Ukrainian general staff indicated that it had not, for the moment, established a definitive assessment of the Russian victims, quantifying also at a maximum of 10 the number of military vehicles “of all types” destroyed in this bombardment.
“Personnel losses […] are being clarified,” was argued in a Facebook post on Monday.
Why does this attack weaken the image of Russian strategists?
The announcement of these losses caused a shock in Russia, but also strong internal criticism towards the Russian military command, already embarrassed by a series of humiliating defeats on the Ukrainian front in recent months.
Moreover, the Russian army did not officially wish to explain the reason for this particularly heavy toll.
"Despite several months of war, certain conclusions have still not been drawn", observes the Russian war reporter Boris Rozhin, close to Ukrainian separatist circles, castigating the "incompetence" of the senior officers of the Russian army.
"Ten months after the start of the war, it is dangerous and criminal to regard the enemy as a fool who sees nothing," said Andrey Medvedev, Deputy Speaker of the Moscow City Legislative Assembly.
"Why do we continue to install (the mobilized) in hotels, hostels and professional schools...", wonders for his part the Russian war correspondent Alexandre Kots.
Igor Strelkov, a Russian politician, warns him that such a deadly strike can happen again "at any time", regretting that Russian generals are "unable to learn in principle".
According to the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW), the Russian Ministry of Defense will probably try to "blame its poor operational security on the officials (separatists) and the mobilized personnel".
On Monday, an unnamed source within the separatist authorities in Donetsk told Russia's state-run TASS news agency that Ukraine's success in the strike was made possible by the "extensive use by the newly arrived military of their mobile phones", which would have allowed their geolocation by the Ukrainian army.
On Monday, also at least unusual in Russia, about 200 people took part in a rally in honor of the victims of the bombing in the city of Samara, where some of the soldiers killed were from.
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