Russia’s defence ministry said that a deadly Ukrainian missile strike that killed 89 of its soldiers was caused by their illegal use of cell phones. This is a big increase in the number of reported deaths.
Moscow had said before that 63 Russian soldiers were killed in the attack over the weekend. Some Russian commentators are getting more and more angry about what they see as a half-hearted campaign in Ukraine. This made the ministry react.
Most of the anger on social media was directed at military commanders and not at Russian President Vladimir Putin, who hasn’t said anything public about the attack, which was another blow after major battlefield retreats in recent months.
The Russian Ministry of Defense said that four Ukrainian missiles hit a temporary Russian barracks in a vocational college in Makiivka. Makiivka is a twin city of Donetsk, which is the regional capital of the part of Ukraine that is controlled by Russia.
Even though an official investigation has been started, the ministry said it was clear that the main reason for the attack was the servicemen’s illegal use of cell phones in large numbers.
“This allowed the enemy to track the soldiers and figure out where they were so they could hit them with a missile,” it said in a statement released just after 1 a.m. on Wednesday in Moscow (2200 GMT Tuesday).
In a video address on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that Russia was about to launch a major offensive to improve its situation. He didn’t say anything about the attack, which is unusual for him because he rarely talks about specific military strikes.
Zelenskiy said in a video address, “We have no doubt that the current rulers of Russia will use everything they have left and everyone they can find to try to turn the tide of the war and at least delay their defeat.”
“We need to change this Russian plan. We’re getting ready for this. We have to beat the terrorists. Their new offensive must fail every time, “He kept going.
The Ukrainian military says it launched an attack near Makiivka that caused Russia to lose equipment and maybe even people. But it hasn’t said anything else.
Russian nationalist bloggers and some pro-Russian officials in the area say that hundreds of people died in Makiivka, but some people say that these numbers are too high.
BAKHMUT FIGHTING
The head of the Ukrainian military, General Valery Zaluzhny, said that the situation on the front line near the town of Bakhmut in the east was especially bad.
Russian forces have tried many times to take over Bakhmut and the area around it, sometimes even marching over the bodies of their own soldiers. Zaluzhny wrote on the messaging app Telegram that the Ukrainian forces were still holding on.
A small patriotic group that helps the widows of Russian soldiers is asking Putin to call up millions of men and close the borders to make sure Russia wins in Ukraine.
Zelenskiy repeated what the Ukrainians said about Moscow planning a full-scale mobilisation, which Russian officials say is not being thought about right now.
A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department said that Washington had heard “that the Ukrainian military hit a Russian military barracks that stored ammunition on Ukrainian territory,” killing many Russian soldiers. “We have also heard that many of these soldiers were new recruits.” Putin plans to talk to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Interfax. This will be the latest conversation between the two men since the war began.
Last year, Turkey and the United Nations worked together to reach an agreement that allowed grain to be exported from Ukrainian ports. However, the chances of serious peace talks look slim, especially since fighting is still going on.
General Zaluzhny of Ukraine, in a summary of a Tuesday call with U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, thanked the American for helping to get anti-missile weapons systems that, according to Kyiv, are stopping more and more Russian missiles from hitting power plants.
Zaluzhny said that he had talked about what equipment Ukraine needed to improve its chances against Russia. This is a point that top officials have been making every day.
Zelenskiy said, “Right now is the time for us and our allies to work together to improve our defence.”
Also, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told Zelenskiy that he can count on long-term support from Britain, “as shown by the recent delivery of more than 1,000 anti-air missiles,” Sunak’s office said on Tuesday.
Putin started his invasion of Ukraine, which he calls a “special military operation,” on February 24, 2022, to protect Russian speakers and stop threats to Russian security. Ukraine and its allies say that Russia is trying to take over territory without any reason. Reuters
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