KYIV – Russia’s claim that hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers were killed over the weekend in revenge for Ukraine’s deadly New Year strike on the army base in Makiivka is false, according to Ukrainian military and media reports.
In a statement on Sunday, The Russian Defense Ministry said the army attacked Ukrainian troops in Kramatorsk, Donetsk, killing 600 people. The statement said the attack was in retaliation for the attack on Makiivka on January 1.
But the Ukrainian armed forces said the Russian claims were nothing more than a stunt as Moscow tries to deflect blame from its military failures.
“The purpose of this informational operation may have been to silence the criticism being leveled for Makievka. But they got the opposite reaction,” Serhiy Cherevaty, a spokesman for the Ukrainian military, told Politico.
The Russian “anger” was “not because they feel sorry for Ukrainians, but because they demand real killings of Ukrainians instead of fake ones,” he said.
find a scapegoat
The Ukrainian attack on Makievka was the deadliest attack against Russian troops so far in the war. While Ukraine said it had lost 400 Russian soldiers killed and about 300 wounded, the Russian Defense Ministry reported 89 soldiers dead (an even lower figure making it the largest single death toll ever acknowledged by Russia). Will make military losses).
Russia claimed that the base in Makiivka was damaged by explosions from Himars rocket launchers. But because of the devastating extent of the explosion, the UK Ministry of Defense has estimated ammunition stored near military housing was also killed.
Following the attack, Russia sought to blame its own troops for using cell phones to help the Ukrainians locate their targets.
Russian military bloggers then began demanding that commanders punish the officers who kept so many Russian soldiers in one place, and Russian soldiers who survived the attack began calling out mismanagement by their own bosses.
On 7 January, Ukrainian military reporter Andrey Tsaplyenko published a video of Wounded Russian private Anton Golovinsky claimed that commanders had gathered troops at a college in Makiivka, about 12.5 kilometers behind the front line, to listen to Vladimir Putin’s New Year’s address.
“We asked them not to do this. All the local people know about their plans and see [us], But we were asked to follow the orders of Colonel Roman Yenikiev. Almost all of our people were killed because of his criminal order,” Golovinski said in a video taken from his hospital bed.
Tsaplienko said that Golovinsky died of his injuries shortly afterwards.
fake revenge
When blaming the troops for the attack on the Makievka base did not work, the Russian Defense Ministry decided to change tactics and said there had been retaliation.
On the night of January 8, Russia fired missiles at Kramatorsk, damaging eight residential buildings and two college dormitories, Mayor Oleksandr Goncharenko said in a statement. Facebook post. “There were no victims,” he said.
Foreign journalists on the ground in Kramatorsk have also dismissed Russian claims of mass casualties. Reuters reported no sign of loss of lifeBecause the Russian missiles missed their target.
Finnish reporter Antti Kuronen from Yale University tweeted from the scene Immediately after the attack, it is said that no ambulances had arrived, as the locals spoke. He also posted photos showing that a missile hit a nearby courtyard, causing some damage but not destroying any buildings. “The Ukrainian military told me the buildings were empty. So far, I trust them and my observations more than the Russian Defense Ministry,” Kuronen said.
Daniele Raineri, a reporter for the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, also checked both dormitories and posted photos showing that both Russian missiles missed their targets. “The place is empty,” said Raineri. Tweet,
cnn team It also said on the ground that it did not see any signs of casualties.
increased resentment
The alleged retaliatory crackdown on Ukrainians has not quelled a growing wave of anger against the Russian Defense Ministry.
Several Russian military bloggers reacted negatively to the ministry’s weekend statement, criticizing the Russian military leadership for fabricating the story. Institute for the Study of War.
Popular Telegram Channels gray zone mocking the Russian military, saying that 300 Ukrainian soldiers were “destroyed by shards of glass, 200 killed by asphalt particles and the rest died of heart failure in hospital after watching a Russian Defense Ministry news briefing.”
At the start of the invasion, Russian forces attacked several Ukrainian army positions, killing many soldiers. Army spokesman Cherevaty said that since then the Ukrainian army has become aware of its enemy’s strategy.
“Now we are doing everything possible to save the lives of our personnel. All commanders received instructions on how to do this. This includes the dispersal of troops in temporary housing and the covert movement of personnel,” Cherevati said. “And it has paid off. Often the enemy thinks that he has attacked our command post or base. And it’s not true.