Russia’s Defense Ministry announced Sunday the death of more than 600 Ukrainian servicemen in a «retaliatory operation» for the New Year’s attack on Russian forces in the eastern Ukrainian town of Makyivka, which cost the lives of at least 89 servicemen. Kiev has denied the information.
The attack on Makivka, in the disputed Donetsk region, is considered one of the biggest blows received by Russian forces since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine to the point that Moscow was forced to confirm, unusually, the death of the 89 servicemen. Ukraine estimates that the number of casualties is much higher: at least 400 servicemen died.
The Russian counterattack, reported the spokesman of the Russian Army, General Igor Konashenkov, occurred against a temporary deployment point of the Ukrainian Army in Kramatorsk, also in Donetsk, and specifically against two dormitories of temporary barracks which were hit by «a massive missile attack».
At the moment of the impacts there were more than 700 Ukrainian military personnel in both dormitories, according to the spokesman in a press conference reported by the Russian agency TASS.
In addition, the spokesman said that in the last hours more than 80 Ukrainian servicemen were killed on the territory of the Lugansk republic and the Kharkov region, including 40 members of «Ukrainian reconnaissance and sabotage groups».
The Ukrainian government has denied the information through a military spokesman, Serhii Cherevati. «It is another sign of Russian propaganda», he has affirmed in declarations to the British channel BBC.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
