Russia’s acknowledgment of dozens of deaths in a single incident is almost unprecedented. The Kremlin recognized on Monday, October 2 the death of 63 soldiers in Ukraine, killed in a Ukrainian strike in separatist territory in the east of the country, the heaviest losses in a single attack admitted by Moscow since the start of the invasion. The Ukrainian general staff confirmed having carried out this strike on Makiivka, a city under Russian occupation located east of the separatist city of Donetsk, on New Year’s Eve.
Moscow rarely releases the number of its casualties, and when it does the numbers are usually low – it acknowledged only one death among hundreds of crew members when Ukraine sank its flagship Moskva in April.
According to the Ministry of Defense, the missiles were fired by HIMARS systems, a weapon supplied by the United States to Ukrainian forces and which hit “a temporary deployment center” of the Russian army in Makiivka. On Monday evening, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in a statement that its forces were behind the strikes on this city. Earlier in the day, the strategic communications department of the Ukrainian armed forces said that nearly 400 Russian soldiers had been killed in Makiivka.
- Hundreds dead according to Russian reporters
For their part, the increasingly influential Russian war reporters claim that hundreds of people were killed in the attack on Makiivka and accuse the senior military commanders of having learned nothing from their past mistakes. . “Housing personnel in buildings instead of shelters directly helps the enemy. The harshest conclusions must be drawn from the situation in Makiivka,” wrote Andrey Medvedev, an ultra-conservative journalist who is deputy speaker of the Moscow city parliament. “Ten months after the start of the war, it is dangerous and criminal to consider the enemy as a fool who sees nothing,” he added.
The governor of the Russian region of Samara, Dmitry Azarov, announced the opening of a telephone line for the relatives of the soldiers killed, among whom are his constituents. On social media, some have accused Russian authorities of downplaying the death toll. “My God, who is going to believe the number 63? The building has been completely destroyed,” wrote a Russian, Nina Vernykh, on the main Russian social network VKontakte.
- Makiivka attack sparks new criticism in Russia
A number of prominent pro-war Russian bloggers and commentators have acknowledged the Makiivka attack, with many suggesting that the number of casualties was higher than officially reported figures. “What happened in Makiivka is horrible,” wrote Archangel Spetznaz Z, a Russian military blogger with more than 700,000 followers on Telegram.
The attack sparked further criticism among pro-invasion bloggers and some officials over the state of the Russian military and the decision to use civilian infrastructure to house soldiers. “Who came up with the idea of placing personnel in large numbers in a single building, where even a fool understands that even if they are hit by artillery, there will be many wounded or dead?”, wrote Spetznaz Z. Commanders “couldn’t care less” about messy stored ammunition on the battlefield, he added. Every mistake has a name.”
Vladlen Tatarsky, a military blogger whom Putin met in the Kremlin in September, called for the creation of a tribunal for Russian military leaders, describing senior Moscow officers as “untrained idiots”, in a message posted on Telegram .
- Aid to Ukraine: Biden facing a divided Congress
US President Joe Biden begins the second half of his term with a divided Congress. After the mid-term elections, the House of Representatives passed into the hands of the Republicans, the Senate remained Democratic. This Tuesday, the newly elected members of Congress are sworn in. Failing to control the two chambers – which was the case since his inauguration in January 2021, although with a very slim majority in the Senate – the American president can no longer hope to pass major legislation.
However, since the start of the war in Ukraine, the American Congress has released more than 110 billion dollars in security, economic and humanitarian aid to kyiv. It might be a little harder for the White House to get new military aid approved: some Republicans have already said they won’t sign “blank checks.”
- Ukraine and the EU will hold a summit on February 3 in Kyiv
Ukraine and the European Union will hold a summit in Kyiv on February 3 to discuss European financial and military support, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office said in a statement on Monday. The Ukrainian head of state discussed details of the high-level meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during her first phone call of the year, the statement said.
The leaders together discussed the delivery of “appropriate” weapons and the launch of the new financial aid program for Ukraine of 18 billion euros, adopted in December by the European Parliament. Volodymyr Zelensky insisted that a first contribution be paid to his country during the month. Last month, the European Parliament adopted a legislative package to help Ukraine financially, which also included the introduction of a minimum tax of 15% on the profits of multinationals, aimed at combating tax evasion. tax.