HEADLINE | RUSSIA INVADES UKRAINE DAY 365 | Criticism mounts in Russia as Ukrainian strike toll rises

.

Russia said on Wednesday that the toll had climbed in its worst single reported loss from a Ukrainian strike, which an increasingly criticized Moscow blamed on troops using mobile phones.

.

The Ukrainian military’s strategic communications unit said nearly 400 Russian soldiers were killed in the town of Makiivka in eastern Ukraine, and even Russian commentators said the death toll may be far higher than the 89 Moscow reported.

As Moscow grappled with the aftermath of the strike, French President Emmanuel Macron told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that his country would send French-made light tanks to help repel the Russian invasion.

.

The death toll in Makiivka is the highest reported by the Russian military in a single strike since its troops invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

.

The deadly strike came after months of discontent within Russia toward the military, following a series of battlefield defeats and a hugely unpopular mobilization drive.

.

Russia’s defense ministry said on Monday in an extremely rare admission that 63 soldiers had been killed. On Wednesday, the ministry said the toll had climbed to 89 after more bodies were found under the rubble of the temporary base where the troops had been housed.

.

It announced a commission was working to clarify what had happened and vowed that “guilty” officials would be punished.

.

In a video, Lt. Gen. Sergei Sevryukov said the tragedy had likely taken place because the Russian troops had used their cellphones, giving away their location to Ukrainian forces. But some critics have said the military is trying to shift the blame, and Russian military correspondents have accused commanders of incompetence.

.

The strike also led to rare public displays of grief, including in Russia’s Samara region on the Volga River, home to some of the victims. Thousands of people have been killed in Ukraine and millions forced to flee their homes since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to attack on Feb. 24.

.

Following a wave of Russian strikes on Ukrainian targets on New Year’s Eve, Moscow said Ukraine struck Makiivka at 12:01 a.m. local time on Jan. 1 using HIMARS rocket systems supplied by the United States.

.

Putin has not yet commented on the strike, which came shortly after his New Year address in which he hailed Moscow’s “heroes” fighting in Ukraine.

.

‘Defending themselves’ Following criticism in Russia over the use of US-delivered weaponry by Ukrainian defenders, including in the Makiivka strike, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Russia was to blame.

.

There was no “hand-wringing by the administration at all”, Kirby said. “This is a war. They [Ukrainians] have been invaded and they are striking back and defending themselves.

.

“Russian soldiers in their territory are legitimate targets for Ukrainian military action, period.” Across the Atlantic, Macron told Zelensky that Paris would increase aid to Ukraine by delivering AMX-10 RC light tanks.

.

“It is the first time that Western-designed tanks are supplied to the Ukrainian armed forces,” the president’s office said after the two leaders spoke by telephone. No other details were provided.

.

Zelensky said on Twitter he had thanked Macron “for the decision to transfer light tanks” to Ukraine. In Russia, calls mounted to draw conclusions after the Makiivka tragedy.

.

Margarita Simonyan, the influential head of state television channel RT, welcomed the army’s promise that officials “will be held accountable”.

.

“It is time to understand that impunity does not lead to social harmony. Impunity leads to new crimes.

.

And, as a result, to public dissent,” she said. There have been reports that the servicemen were quartered in an unprotected building, which was destroyed when munitions stored on the premises had detonated in the strike.

.

‘Hero’ troops praised The small industrial city of Makiivka is located in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, which has been under the control of pro-Russian separatists since the beginning of a conflict in the country’s east in 2014. Denis Pushilin, the Moscow-installed head of Donetsk, hailed the “heroism” of the Russian troops.

.

“The majority of them, after barely getting out of the building hit by American Himars and regaining consciousness, returned back to pull out their comrades,” Pushilin said on Telegram.

.

In another Telegram post late on Wednesday, Pushilin said he had visited the wounded with Viktor Goremykin, Russia’s deputy defense minister, and Dmitry Azarov, governor of the Samara region, where some of the victims hailed from.

.

Almost all of the injured had been transferred to other regions of Russia for medical attention, Pushilin said. In comments to local media, Azarov hailed the “courage” of the troops.

.

“After the shelling, soldiers and officers, wounded and with concussions, saved others, pulling comrades from under the rubble,” he said.

.

Among the dead were rank-and-file soldiers as well as “representatives of the command staff”, he added.

.

Yevgeny Balitsky, the Russian-installed head of the occupied part of the southern region of Zaporizhzhia, said five people were killed and another 15 wounded in the town of Vasilyevka.

.

On the Ukrainian side, the general staff reported Russian shelling in Kramatorsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.

.

The president’s office said five people had been killed and 13 wounded by Russian fire in the past 24 hours.

Agence France-Presse
(The Jakarta Post)
Kyiv   ●   Fri, January 6 2023

to Read Full Story Click to read: https://www.thejakartapost.com/paper/2023/01/06/criticism-mounts-in-russia-as-ukrainian-strike-toll-rises.html.
.

Ads by:
Memento Maxima DigitalMarketing
@[email protected]
SPACE RESERVE FOR  ADVERTISEMENT