Explained: What we know about Ukraine’s deadliest attack on Russia since the conflict began

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Amid the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine, in what might be the biggest attack on Moscow by Kyiv, since it began on February 24, 2021, the Kremlin in a rare announcement admitted that at least 89 of its military personnel were killed during a rocket strike by the latter.

The first announcement was made on Monday, by the Russian defence ministry where it acknowledged that at least 63 of its soldiers were killed in Makiivka, a small Ukrainian city in the eastern Donetsk region which has been occupied by Moscow since 2014.

What happened?

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The strike in question, took place on New Year’s Day, Sunday, at a vocational school which was reportedly housing Russian troops at the time. According to the Russian-installed Donetsk official, Daniil Bezsonov, the attack took place the first minute after midnight. Subsequently, both Russian and Ukrainian sources began reporting on the attack.

ALSO READ |Kyiv takes responsibility for Makiivka strikes which killed 63 Russian troops

The senior Russian military official, Lt General Sergei Sevryukov, confirmed that Ukraine hit a temporary base in Makiivka right after midnight on January 1, using the United States-supplied HIMARS rocket system.

According to a statement by Moscow’s defence ministry, four rockets from the HIMARS launchers hit the building and “from the detonation of the warheads of the HIMARS rockets, the ceilings of the building collapsed.”

The questionable claims about the death toll

The Ukrainian army’s strategic communications department, on Sunday, said that it killed 400 mobilised Russian soldiers when it hit the school building and 300 others were injured. However, this figure had not been independently verified and later general staff of Kyiv’s armed forces said that “up to 10 units of enemy military equipment” had been destroyed, while the death toll remained unclear.

ALSO READ |Russia blames mobile phones for missile strike in Makiivka that killed 89

Notably, officials in Kyiv almost never publicly claim responsibility for attacks on Russian-occupied territory. In a statement, on Wednesday, Russia’s defence ministry said 89 of its servicemen were killed in the attack on Makiivka after more bodies were discovered. They also went on to blame the unauthorised use of mobile phones by the troops, however, no evidence has been provided for this claim.

“It is already obvious 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,” said the defence ministry, as per Reuters. It added, “This factor allowed the enemy to track and determine the coordinates of the soldiers' location for a missile strike.”

ALSO WATCH |89 killed in Ukrainian missile strikes, says Russia

This is the biggest loss of life in a single attack that Russia has admitted to since the beginning of its war with Ukraine. Additionally, it was also the first information out of Russia about the death toll since last September when the defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, had said that nearly 6,000 Russian troops had been killed during the conflict up until that time.

Russian military faces backlash

Igor Girkin, the former separatist commander turned one of the highest-profile Russian nationalist military bloggers, questioned the death toll released by the military and said at least “hundreds” had been killed or wounded, according to a report by Reuters. He also attributed the death toll, which he suspects is higher, to the uncamouflaged military equipment stored at the site as well as Russia’s “untrainable” generals for the losses.

Notably, the Russian defence minister also indicated that an investigation into the attack is underway and said that the officials responsible would be brought to justice “all the necessary measures are currently being adopted to prevent this kind of tragic incident in the future”, reported BBC.

ALSO READ |Russia using its New Year's assault to 'kill as many civilians as possible', claim Ukrainian officials

Additionally, Russian lawmaker, Sergei Mironov, also demanded that the officials who “allowed the concentration of military personnel in an unprotected building” and “all the higher authorities who did not provide the proper level of security”, be held liable for their missteps.

A US-based Institute for the Study of War in their analysis also noted that this attack has garnered “significant criticism of Russian military leadership in the Russian information space.” It added that there is a chance that Moscow’s air and missile campaign against Ukraine is not generating “information effects among Russia's nationalists,” or at least as well as the Kremlin had hoped.

Therefore, such failure hinders his efforts of retaining the dominant narrative in the domestic information space and could complicate matters for Russian President Vladimir Putin trying to appease the pro-war community in Moscow, said the US-based institute.

ALSO READ |Zelensky tells Russian people Putin waging war just to stay in power and is destroying them

Furthermore, they speculate that Russia’s defence ministry would attempt to “deflect the blame” for their “poor operational security” on local officials and mobilised personnel. Regardless, the sentiment of discontent after the attack is evident, with several people including war correspondents and people close to the separatists having taken to media platforms since and criticised the Russian military leadership.

It can also be noted in a rare public vigil where reportedly 200 people gathered in the Russian city of Samara, which is where some of the mobilised soldiers who were killed were from. Mourners were seen laying flowers at a monument in the city, an Orthodox priest recited a prayer for the dead, and soldiers fired a gun salute, to commemorate the victims.

(With inputs from agencies)

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