Moscow recognizes the death of 63 soldiers after a Ukrainian strike in Makiivka near Donetsk.
by Cédric Pietétraunga
The fact is rare enough to be underlined. Usually reluctant to provide elements on the level of its losses, the Russian Defense Ministry recognized, on Monday, January 2, the death of 63 soldiers during a bombing led by the Ukrainian army in Makivka, an industrial city located in The Donetsk region occupied by Moscow and being fifteen kilometers from the front. According to sources close to the Ukrainian authorities, the balance sheet would even amount to 400 dead and 300 injured, figures impossible to check.
According to testimonies published on social networks, a building from the University of Makivka serving as a dormitory for the Russian mobilized would have been reached by several projectiles on the night of the New Year, literally blowing the three levels of the building. Six missiles were fired by Himars of American Himars launcher on “a provisional deployment center” of the army, said Igor Konachenkov, the spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, recognizing that only two of these projectiles had been intercepted by the Russian anti -aircraft defense.
In a message published on January 2 on Telegram, the Russian military blogger Rybar, very followed in his country, assures that “around 600 people” were in the building during his bombing, a concentration far too large for not Not being spotted, he believes. According to different sources, it is the emissions of the mobile phones of the Russian soldiers, recently arrived in Donbass and wishing to give their news to their families, who would have allowed the Ukrainian artillerymen to detect their presence. A deposit of ammunition and vehicles would also have been destroyed in the explosion.
of the armies that trample
For murderer, this major attack is not the first led by the Ukrainians. In May 2022, an entire column of Russian armored vehicles, which tried to cross the Severski Donets river, in the northeast of Ukraine, using a floating bridge, had been taken under the fire of 17 E Army brigade of the kyiv army. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense had then published satellite photos showing dozens of troops and transport vehicles, charred hundreds of meters deep, suggesting a report of several hundred dead and wounded.
Makivka’s attack comes as the Russian and Ukrainian armies have been stalking for several weeks over the 800 kilometers of the front. Since the evacuation of the city of Kherson by the troops of Moscow on November 9, 2022 and the resumption of the right bank of the Dniepr river by the Ukrainian forces, neither of the belligerents has recorded significant success. Intense fights always take place around the city of Bakhmut but attacks and counterattacks follow one another without significant advances. The wet weather and the absence of prolonged gel make the floors very muddy, which hinders the maneuvers.
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