Ukraine attacked a building that housed Russian soldiers and Russian military equipmenton New Year’s Day with a missile that killed 63 Russians, making it likely the deadliest Ukrainian attack against Russian troops since the war started.
Why do we not have the official number of deaths in Ukrainian attack?
Details on the actual number of deaths remains murky. Ukraine originally reported that 400 Russian soldiers were killed, but the Russian Defense Ministry only confirmed 63 Russian solders were killed in the strike, per The New York Times.
What we know is it is “the highest number of deaths acknowledged by Moscow in a single incident since the war began,” according to BBC.
One pro-Russian commentator, Igor Girkin, claims that hundreds were killed, the building was “almost completely destroyed” and military equipment stored in the building was also destroyed, per BBC.
The strike happened in Makiivka, a suburb in the Donetsk People’s Republic of Ukraine, that Russia took control over in 2014.
“(Since February), most Russian soldiers were scattered across the front, but when Ukraine noticed reservists bunching together in one place they took action,” Oleh Zhdanov, a top Ukrainian military analyst, told NPR.
The missile was U.S.-made and could give Ukraine momentum in the war, according to The New York Times.