Russia is facing a backlash for a New Year’s Eve attack by Ukraine that killed dozens, perhaps hundreds of soldiers, in the Russian-occupied Donetsk region.
One minute into the start of 2023, missiles launched from U.S.-supplied Himars rocket systems hit a vocational college in Makiivka where hundreds of new Russian conscripts had recently arrived to be housed.
The building, where ammunition was also stored, was reduced to rubble. Russia has acknowledged the death of 89 troops, but Ukraine claims that 400 soldiers were killed and 300 more injured.
This is the largest number of troops Russia has officially recognized as fallen in battle since the start of the Russian invasion in February 2022.
Evidence from within Russia and on social media suggests that the number of Russians killed in the attack far exceeds the 89 officially acknowledged by Russian authorities.
While some Russian commentators and bloggers acknowledged the attack and accused Ukraine of exaggerating the number of deaths, other pro-Russian commentators reported death and destruction beyond the official numbers given by Russia.
The BBC reports that Igor Girkin, a pro-Russian commentator, said hundreds of recently mobilised soldiers had been killed and wounded, although the exact number was unknown because of the large number still missing.
Gatherings to commemorate the dead were held in several cities in the Russian region of Samara, where most of the soldiers housed at the destroyed site were from.
Russians on social media were also sceptical of the official Russian figures.
“Dear God, who will believe in the figure of 63? The building has been completely destroyed,” Nina Vernykh, wrote on Russia’s largest social network, VKontakte, according to the Kyiv Post.
Accusations of incompetence on the part of Russian military personnel for housing such a large number of soldiers at an insecure site came from both pro-Russian leaders in the Donetsk region and from within Russia.
Pavel Gubarev, once a leading official in Russia’s proxy government in Donetsk, called the situation “criminal neglect” and a demonstration that Russian military leaders had not learned from their earlier mistakes in the war.
Russian security authorities have blamed the attack on newly arrived soldiers using their mobile phones, which is prohibited, stating that Ukrainian forces were able to locate and target the troops through their cell phone signals.
But Sergei Mironov said “all the higher authorities who did not provide the proper level of security” should face criminal charges, the Kyiv Post also reports. A senator also called for a thorough internal investigation into the situation.
Andrei Medvedev, the deputy speaker of Moscow’s local parliament, also criticised the government for laying the blame on ordinary soldiers instead of the command that made the strategic and housing decisions.
“History will certainly preserve the names of those who tried to keep silent about the trouble, and those who tried to blame the dead soldier for everything,” he wrote on Telegram.
Russia has launched an investigation and Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on January 3rd awarding families of National Guard soldiers killed in service 5m roubles ($69,000).
Ukraine also claims to have killed or wounded an additional 500 Russian troops in another attack on a village in the occupied southern region of Kherson, also on New Year’s Eve.
Russia has intensified its drone strikes on Kyiv and other Russian cities in the last week, continuing to target key infrastructure.
