KYIV: On Tuesday, emergency crews sifted through the rubble of a building hit by Ukrainian rockets, killing at least 63 Russian soldiers stationed there, in the latest blow to the Kremlin's war strategy as Ukraine claims Moscow's tactics are changing.
An Associated Press video showed five cranes and emergency workers removing large chunks of concrete under a clear blue sky in Makiivka, a town in the partially Russian-occupied eastern Donetsk region.
According to a Russian Defense Ministry statement, Ukrainian forces launched rockets from a HIMARS multiple launch system provided by the United States during the attack, which occurred last weekend.
It was one of the deadliest attacks on Kremlin forces since the war began more than ten months ago, and it sparked renewed criticism of the way the war is being conducted within Russia.
The Russian statement on the attack released on Monday provided few other details. According to unconfirmed reports, the death toll is much higher.
The Strategic Communications Directorate of Ukraine's Armed Forces claimed Sunday that 400 mobilized Russian soldiers were killed and 300 more were injured in a vocational school building in Makiivka. This assertion could not be independently verified. The strike occurred "in the area of Makiivka," according to the Russian statement, but did not mention the vocational school.
Satellite images analyzed by The Associated Press show the apparent aftermath of the strike. An image from December 20 showed the structure standing. One from January 2 depicted it in ruins. Other days had dense cloud cover, making standard satellite imagery impossible to see the site.
Vigils for soldiers killed in the strike were held in two Russian cities on Tuesday, according to the state news agency RIA Novosti.
Locals gathered in Samara, southwestern Russia, for an Orthodox service in memory of the dead. According to RIA, the service was followed by a minute of silence, and flowers were laid at a Soviet-era war memorial.
According to unconfirmed reports in Russian-language media, the victims were regional reservists.
With the fighting lasting much longer than expected and becoming mired in a war of attrition against a Ukrainian counteroffensive backed by Western-supplied weapons, Russian President Vladimir Putin is considering ways to regain momentum.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address late Tuesday that his country needs to strengthen its defenses in the face of what he described as Russian plans for a new offensive.
"There is no doubt that today's Russian leaders will do everything they can to reverse the battlefield situation or, at the very least, postpone their defeat," he said. "We must derail that Russian scenario, and we are preparing for it."
Zelenskyy claimed a day earlier that the Kremlin intends to increase its use of Iranian-made exploding drones.
“We have information that Russia is planning a prolonged attack by Shaheds (exploding drones),” he said Monday night. Zelenskyy said the goal is to break Ukraine`s resistance by “exhausting our people, (our) air defence, our energy. Russia`s air and missile campaign against Ukraine is likely not generating the Kremlin`s desired information effects among Russia`s nationalists,” the think tank said late Monday.
Meanwhile, drone advances in Ukraine have accelerated a trend that could soon bring the world`s first fully autonomous fighting robots to the battlefield. Putin`s additional reliance on currently available drones might not help him achieve his goals, however, as Ukraine claims a high success rate against the weapons.
During the first two days of the new year, which were marked by relentless nighttime drone attacks on Ukrainian cities and energy infrastructure, the country`s forces shot down more than 80 Iranian-made drones, Zelenskyy said.
Since September, Ukraine`s armed forces have shot down almost 500 drones, Ukrainian air force spokesman Yurii Ihnat claimed in a television interview Tuesday.
In the latest fighting, a Russian missile strike overnight on the city of Druzhkivka in the Donetsk region wounded two people, the deputy head of Ukraine`s presidential office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, reported Tuesday. The Russian military on Tuesday acknowledged strikes on Druzhkivka and Kramatorsk, also in Donetsk.
A reporter with French broadcaster TF1 was live on television screens when a blast from one of the strikes erupted behind him in Druzhkivka. A German reporter with Bild newspaper suffered a minor injury from shrapnel in the same bombardment.
The two are charged under Ukrainian law with violating the country`s territorial integrity and with “planning, preparing, initiating and conducting a war of aggression,” which carry a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Ukraine`s chief military officer, Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi, said he had his first phone call this year with U.S. Gen. Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Zaluzhnyi said on Facebook that he told Milley about heavy battles around Svatove-Kreminna and in the direction of Lysychansk.
Source: APNews