Russia announced the killing of 600 Ukrainian soldiers in a "retaliatory" strike in eastern Ukraine, but a military spokesman for the Eastern Region Command described the announcement as a Russian media operation, and the Ukrainian president confirmed the steadfastness of his country's forces in the cities of Bakhmut and Solidar.
The Russian Ministry of Defense said that its forces carried out - based on reliable intelligence - a missile strike on two hotels where about 1,300 Ukrainian soldiers are temporarily staying in the city of Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, in the Donbass region (eastern Ukraine).
The ministry added that the strike killed 600 Ukrainian soldiers, and was in response to the Ukrainian bombing that targeted a gathering of Russian forces in the town of Makeyevka in Donetsk also on New Year's Eve, killing 89 soldiers, according to an official toll, and hundreds of deaths according to the Ukrainian army and Russian bloggers.
However, the spokesman for the Operations Command of the Eastern Region of the Ukrainian army, Sergey Chervaty, said that all Russian statements that talk about the killing of 600 members of the Ukrainian army are baseless.
Chervaty described it as an "information operation of the Russian Defense Ministry" to show that it responded forcefully to the Ukrainian strikes.
The mayor of Kramatorsk also denied, through his Facebook account, that there had been any deaths in the city.
But the authorities in Kyiv did not immediately comment on this attack.
The effects of the Russian bombing of Kramatorsk (Reuters)
Effects of the Russian strike
On the other hand, Reuters said that the missile strike caused damage, but did not destroy buildings, and there were no clear signs of casualties.
Journalists from the agency also visited two university dormitories that the Russian Defense Ministry said were temporarily housing Ukrainian soldiers near the front line of the war at the time of the night strike, and neither of them appeared to have been hit by direct missiles or severely damaged, according to Reuters.
Russia repeatedly bombed the city of Kramatorsk, which is located in the Donetsk region, and it is one of the 4 provinces that Moscow officially announced its accession to Russian lands, amid rejection by Kyiv and Western powers.
Kramatorsk is located a few miles northwest of Bakhmut, a small city that Russia has been trying to capture for more than 5 months in a fierce battle that has seen some of the fiercest fighting in recent weeks.
Battles of Bakhmut and Solidar
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that the Ukrainian forces are repelling the continuous attacks on Bakhmut and maintaining their positions in the nearby city of Solidar, under "very difficult" conditions.
Zelinsky added - in his videotaped speech on Sunday evening - that "Bakhmut is steadfast in spite of everything. Despite the destruction of most of the city as a result of the Russian raids, our soldiers are repelling the continuous Russian attempts to advance."
He also said, "Solidar is steadfast, despite the massive destruction, and things are very difficult."
The forces of the pro-Russian Luhansk region said that the Ukrainian forces had received orders to withdraw from the city of Solidar.
However, the Ukrainian army confirmed that Solidar is still under its control, and said that fighting continues in its vicinity in light of the use of heavy weapons by Russian forces.