Ukraine has claimed that its armed forces killed 400 Russians and injured 300 more in a missile attack on New Year’s Eve.
The attack was on a Russian military base in occupied Makiivka in Donetsk Oblast. The Department of Strategic Communications of the Armed Forces of Ukraine made the claim on Telegram. The Russian-installed administration of the Donetsk region in Ukraine said on Sunday that at least 25 rockets were fired at the region in the attack.
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Pro-Russian authorities have acknowledged casualties but have not confirmed the figures reported by Ukraine, according to BBC News.
Daniil Bezsonov, a senior Russian-backed official in the occupied parts of Donetsk, said the missile strike hit the building where Russian forces were thought to be stationed two minutes after midnight on New Year’s Day.
“A massive blow was dealt to the vocational school from American MLRS Himars,” Bezsonov said, referring to U.S.-provided missiles. “There were dead and wounded, the exact number is still unknown,” Bezsonov added on Telegram.
Igor Girkin, a former commander of pro-Russian troops in east Ukraine who, according to the Independent, has become one of the highest-profile Russian nationalist military bloggers, acknowledged the death toll was in the hundreds.
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Ammunition was stored in the building, which detonated when the barracks were hit. Ukraine said the massive amount of Russian casualties were a result of “careless handling of heating devices.”
In an address on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Russians that “no one” would ever forgive the country for attacking it with missiles on New Year’s Eve.
