According to the admission even of the senior officers of the Russian army, in spite of the prohibition, many soldiers would have used their telephones to call their families on the occasion of the New Year.
A bombardment and interrogations. On Sunday, in the first minutes of 2023, a Ukrainian strike on the city of Makiivka, in the Donetsk region, killed at least 89 Russian soldiers, the biggest loss for Moscow since the start of the conflict, on February 24, 2022.
The day after the strike, the Russian authorities acknowledged the losses, but the initial death toll of 63 has since risen.
New Year’s wishes
In a statement published on Wednesday by the Telegram of the Russian Ministry of Defense, General Sergei Sevrioukov indicates that for the moment, “a commission is investigating the circumstances” of this attack. However, according to him, the very behavior of the Russian soldiers allowed the Ukrainian drones to pinpoint their location.
“But it is already clear that the main cause (…) is the switching on and the massive use by personnel of mobile phones within range of enemy weapons, contrary to the ban”, explains the general. On this New Year’s Eve, many Russian soldiers would indeed have sought to join their families.
“This factor allowed the enemy to locate and determine the coordinates of the location of military personnel for a missile strike,” he adds.
The press release also indicates that those found guilty in the investigation will be brought to justice and that measures have been taken to prevent similar events from happening again.
Building far too vulnerable?
The announcement of this strike sparked anger on the Russian side, where many citizens are demanding justice. While Vladimir Putin has not officially reacted to the event, many political figures have publicly expressed their anger.
“Ten months after the start of the war, it is dangerous and criminal to consider the enemy as an imbecile who sees nothing”, for example launched Andrey Medvedev, deputy speaker of the Legislative Assembly of the city of Moscow.
Especially since the use of telephones could not be the only reason for this disastrous record on the Russian side. As explained by BBCthe victims, who were part of the 300,000 called up for the partial mobilization wanted by Putin, were housed in a vocational school, a vulnerable building located near an ammunition warehouse.
For its part, the department of strategic communications of the Ukrainian armed forces has meanwhile affirmed that nearly 400 Russian soldiers were killed in Makiivka.
