Hundreds of Russian Soldiers Killed in Himars Attack in Donbas, Russia Attacks

“Russia’s Defense Ministry said Monday that Ukrainian forces used a U.S.-supplied Himars rocket system to destroy a facility used as a base for mobilized troops in the city of Makiivka,” The Wall Street Journal reports. Makiivka is in Russian-occupied Donbas.

The defense ministry confirmed that 63 Russian troops died in the blast, saying that a wave of HIMARS rockets delivering “high-explosive warheads” struck the facility that housed the troops.

Rybar, a Telegram news channel with links to the Russian military, said that about 70 people had been confirmed dead and more than 100 wounded as debris continued to be cleared at the site. Russian President Vladimir Putin last month included Rybar’s founder, Mikhail Zvinchuk, in a new Kremlin-run working group producing a monthly report on the progress of Russia’s troop mobilization.

A statement by top Russian commanders carried in state-run TASS reads: “The Kiev regime delivered a strike firing six projectiles from the US-made HIMARS multiple rocket launcher on a Russian unit near Makeyevka in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). The attack left 63 Russian service members killed.”

According to RT, The Russia Defense Ministry reported more than 200 Ukrainian troops and foreign ‘mercenaries’ were killed.

According to the Russia military, two launchers were destroyed at the Druzhkovka railway station in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). The second pair of launchers was located near the Ukrainian-held city of Kramatorsk, and was firing at other DPR cities, the ministry added.

In addition, the military claims nine HIMARS rockets were intercepted near the frontline in the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), also in Donbass, as well as in Kherson Region to the north of Crimea, the statement said.

The strike reportedly took place soon after midnight on Sunday, New Year’s Day.

The Ukrainian side claims the true numbers among the Russian dead is much higher, with the Ukrainian military asserting that some 400 were killed and another 300 were wounded. That cannot be independently verified, CBS News reports.

There are between 100,000 and 200,000 Russian troops in Ukraine.

Russian military bloggers, whose information has largely been reliable during the war, said ammunition stored close to the facility had exploded in the attack and contributed to the high number of casualties.

According to Reuters, Russian nationalists and some lawmakers have demanded punishment for commanders they accused of ignoring dangers as anger grew over the killing of dozens of Russian soldiers in one of the deadliest strikes of the Ukraine conflict.

Meanwhile, Rybar reports further Russian missile attacks.

Russian Armed Forces inflicted another massive strike using ‘Geran-2’ UAV on energy facilities in Kyiv.

Despite the strengthening of the capital’s air defense, Russian drones hit the planned targets. There are serious power failures in the city.

Attack on military facilities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Druzhkovka

Yesterday, the RF Armed Forces simultaneously hit two positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in Druzhkovka in the part of the Donetsk People’s Republic occupied by Ukraine.

The strikes were carried out on the deployment point of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the building of the ice arena “Altair”, as well as a makeshift hangar near the railway station near the hotel “Men”, used by foreign mercenaries and journalists.

More than 200 members of various Ukrainian formations were in Altair at the time of the strike. The exact information about what was in the building at the railway junction is unknown.

According to some reports, there was a position area for the S-300 anti-aircraft missile system. According to others, HIMARS MLRS and ammunition for it were unloaded at the station, and there were also foreign mercenaries.

One thing is known for sure: the force of the explosion and the secondary detonation, recorded on the camera of French journalists, testify to the exact defeat of the object.

Many called the massive shelling of Druzhkovka and Kramatorsk a response to a strike on a vocational school in Makeevka, where more than 100 Russian servicemen were killed.

The defeat of military targets should not occur in response to something. Systematic fire impact, suppression of air defense position areas and precision strikes are just elements of warfare.

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