Nfter the Ukrainian attacks on a Russian military base in Makiivka in the Donetsk region, the Ministry of Defense in Moscow corrected the number of its own soldiers killed by more than 20 to 89. The men and the deputy commander were found after the rocket attack on New Year’s Eve in the rubble of the collapsed reinforced concrete building, said Lieutenant General Sergey Sevryukov in Moscow on Wednesday night. Previously there had been talk of 63 deaths. Ukraine had fired at the shelter with the US Himar multiple rocket launcher.
Sevryukov also acknowledged mistakes for the first time, thereby confirming media reports. According to them, the main reason for the “tragedy” was that the soldiers used their mobile phones en masse on New Year’s Eve, despite a ban, thereby alerting the Ukrainian side to their location. Accordingly, the Ukrainian armed forces shot down six rockets, four of which hit and two were intercepted, it said. Ukraine had spoken of 400 dead and 300 injured in Makiivka (Russian: Makejewka).
The investigations are still ongoing, but so much about the background is already clear, said Sevryukov. “This factor enabled the enemy to determine the direction and locate the coordinates of the position of the soldiers in order to carry out the missile strike.” At present, care is being taken to ensure that this does not happen again. In addition, the guilty officials would be held accountable.
Moscow claims to have destroyed Himar’s systems
According to the ministry representative in Moscow, the Himars system from which the shots had been fired was located and destroyed. In return fire, Russian troops in the Donetsk region also destroyed four Himars launch pads, four combat vehicles, more than 800 projectiles and killed more than 200 “nationalists and foreign legionnaires”. This information could not be verified independently.
In the past, too, there were repeated reports of serious mistakes made by Russian commanders in this war. The Ukrainian leadership has repeatedly stressed that the “enemy’s stupidity” sometimes makes it easy for the military to achieve success. Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin has already suffered numerous defeats in the invasion of Ukraine that he began on February 24.
Zelenskyj calls on the West to strengthen Ukraine’s defences
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on the international community to strengthen his country’s defense capabilities after new Russian missile strikes. Ukraine is preparing for a new wave of mobilization by the “terror state” Russia and must therefore be prepared, said Selenskyj in his video message distributed in Kyiv on Tuesday evening. After telephone calls with the heads of government of the Netherlands, Great Britain, Norway and Canada, he called for everything to be done to ensure Russia’s defeat in the war.
Russia will leave no stone unturned to turn the war around and avoid defeat. “We have to destroy this scenario of the Russians,” Zelenskyj said. “The terrorists have to lose.” Russia will mobilize new reservists who will be sent to their deaths, he said. Ukraine, in turn, must mobilize the civilized world.
