At least 89 Russian soldiers were killed in a Ukrainian strike on January 1 near Donetsk. Russia now claims to have replied, without specifying whether it was during the truce decreed by Putin.
The Russian army claims this Sunday to have killed at least “600 Ukrainian soldiers” in a “retaliatory strike” carried out on military barracks in Kramatorsk, in eastern Ukraine, after a Ukrainian bombardment on Makiivka had killed at least 89 Russian troops on January 1. The exact date of the Russian strike was not given by the ministry.
A “criminal strike” from kyiv, according to Moscow
“In response to the kyiv regime’s criminal strike in the first minutes of January 2023 … Russian forces carried out a retaliatory operation,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in its daily report, indicating that it struck two barracks.
More than 600 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in this massive strike against buildings used as temporary accommodation for Ukrainian troops, the Russian Defense Ministry said, according to Reuters. The news agency was not immediately able to verify the Russian Defense Ministry’s claims.
A 36-hour ceasefire was decreed Thursday by Vladimir Putin for Friday January 6 and Saturday January 7, on the occasion of Orthodox Christmas. However, shots were observed on both sides of the front.
Shootings in the middle of the Christmas truce
Local Ukrainian authorities reported that Kramatorsk was hit by seven rockets overnight. Two other rockets targeted the nearby town of Kostiantynivka.
On Saturday, AFP journalists present in Kramatorsk heard at least four explosions before midnight.
The Russian army presented this strike as revenge for the one carried out in Makiivka, in pro-Russian separatist territory in eastern Ukraine, a few minutes after the start of the new year.
The Ukrainian army had targeted a temporary deployment point for Russian soldiers there, causing the death of at least 89 soldiers, according to the report given by Moscow.
