In a rare move, the Russian military has admitted that unauthorized use of cellphones by Russian soldiers led to a deadly Ukrainian rocket attack on the facility where they were stationed, in which the death toll from Sunday’s attack rose to 89.
Russian General Sergey Savryukov said yesterday (Tuesday) that phone signals allowed the Ukrainian forces in Kyiv to “determine the coordinates of the location of the military personnel” and launch an attack. The Russian military is taking unspecified measures to “prevent similar tragic incidents in the future,” Sabryukov said, promising to punish those responsible for the mistake.
The attack, one of the deadliest on Kremlin forces since the start of the war more than 10 months ago, occurred one minute into the new year, according to Savryukov. It was another blow to the military prestige of the Kremlin, which is struggling to move forward with its invasion of Ukraine, and it sparked renewed criticism within Russia of how the war is being waged, amid successful attacks against Ukrainian women.
According to the details of the attack that leaked out in the last few days, Ukrainian forces fired six rockets from a US-supplied “HIMRAS” launch system at a building “in the area of Makiveka” where the soldiers were stationed. Two rockets were intercepted but four hit the building and exploded, causing the building to collapse .
British intelligence officials said today (Wednesday) that Moscow’s “unprofessional” military methods are probably partly to blame for the high casualty rate in Mkayivka. “Given the extent of the damage, there is a real possibility that munitions were stored near the troops’ residence, which exploded during the attack and created secondary explosions,” the British Ministry of Defense said in a post on Twitter.
In the same post, the ministry said the building hit by Ukrainian missiles was just over 12 kilometers from the front line near Abdiyevka, inside one of the hottest areas in the conflict. Both Maqibka and Abdiyevka, key targets of the Russian offensive in the Donetsk region, lie on the outskirts of the capital, Donetsk city. “The Russian military has a record of unsafely storing ammunition long before the current war, but this incident highlights how unprofessional habits contribute to Russia’s high casualty rate,” the update added.
Meanwhile, the leader of the Donetsk region, one of four regions illegally annexed by Moscow in September, appointed by the Kremlin, today (Wednesday) praised the “courage and true heroism” of the slain Russian soldiers. Denis Pushilin said in a Telegram post that some of the dead tried to pull their friends from the burning building.
In Samara in southwestern Russia, the locals gathered on Tuesday for a religious ceremony in memory of the dead. A minute’s silence was held after the ceremony, and flowers were laid at a Soviet-era war memorial, the state-run RIA Novosti agency reported. Unconfirmed reports in Russian-language media said the victims were conscripted reservists from the region.
The Russian Defense Ministry, in a rare admission that there were casualties, initially said the attack killed 63 soldiers. But as emergency crews moved through the wreckage of the building, the death toll rose. The battalion’s deputy commander was among the dead. Unverified reports put the death toll far higher.
The Directorate of Strategic Communications of the Armed Forces of Ukraine claimed on Sunday that around 400 Russian soldiers were killed in a school building in Mykivka and around 300 others were injured. This claim could not be independently verified. The Russian statement said the attack took place “in the area of Makeybeka” and did not mention the school.