Russia’s Defense Ministry on Wednesday raised from 63 to 89 the number of soldiers killed in a January 1 Ukrainian shelling of the Donetsk city of Makiivka, which is controlled by Russian forces. However, the Ukrainian army notes that 400 people were killed in the attack.
According to the Russian military command, the main cause of the incident was the massive use of mobile phones by the soldiers, who, according to some media, called their relatives and congratulated them on the New Year. “It is clear that the main reason was the massive use of mobile phones in violation of the ban and within the range of the enemy’s weapons. [al respecto]- Lieutenant General Sergey Sevryukov said without further details. “This factor allowed the enemy to determine and determine the coordinates of the situation of military personnel for a missile attack,” he added.
According to Sevryukov, four HIMARS missiles hit a building where Russian servicemen were stationed, causing its destruction. He said two other projectiles used in the attack had “interrupted”. The attack took place between 31 and 1 January at midnight.
Moscow pledged to take steps to “prevent such tragic events in the future” and said it would punish those responsible.
The leader of the Just Russia party, Sergei Mironov, was the first senior politician on Tuesday to call for an investigation into Makiivka, where, in addition to professional soldiers, recruits were recruited as part of the partial mobilization announced last year.
“The investigation will determine what happened: treason or criminal negligence,” he said, adding that he believed it was “both.” Mironov wrote that “it is clear that neither intelligence, nor counter-intelligence, nor anti-aircraft defense did not act as it should.”
Many pro-invasion Russian bloggers criticized the Russian military for the incident. Semyon Pegov, a Putin-decorated war correspondent, said the phone explanation “seems like a clear attempt to avoid blame”. Pegov notes that the Ukrainians could have located the base differently.
Source: El Diario
