The Russian Defense Ministry claimed it conducted a “retaliation” rocket attack Sunday that killed 600 Ukrainian troops housed in Kramatorsk in the hotly contested Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.
The Ukraine military had no immediate comment on the claim.
“As a result of a massive missile attack on these points of temporary deployment of units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, more than 600 Ukrainian servicemen were killed,” the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry said the attack was in retaliation for a Ukraine attack last week on buildings housing Russian soldiers in Makiivka, about 60 miles south Kramatorsk. That strike killed 89 Russian servicemembers, the Kremlin said; Ukraine authorities estimated the death toll was much higher.
The attack came hours after the end of a partially observed, 36-hour unilateral cease-fire Russian President Vladimir Putin had ordered to mark Russian Orthodox Christmas.
UKRAINE DISMISSES PUTIN CEASE-FIRE ORDER:US to send Bradley vehicles to Ukraine
Other developments:
►Ukrainian tennis player Ekaterina Volodko defeated Russian Valeria Savinykh in the finals of a tennis tournament in Thailand.
►Russia and Belarus will conducted joint tactical air force exercises from Jan. 16 to Feb. 1, Belarusian officials announced. Belarus has been Russia closest ally since the Ukraine invasion more than 10 months ago.
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Russia bracing for Ukrainian offensive in spring, British say
Russia has been bolstering its fortifications in Zaporizhzhia, concerned that a major Ukrainian breakthrough in the southeastern region would seriously challenge the viability of Russia’s ‘land bridge’ Russia and Crimea, the British Defense Ministry says. The ministry, in its latest assessment of the war, also says the Russians are concerned that Ukrainian success in the Luhansk region would further undermine the Kremlin’s professed war aim of ‘liberating’ the Donbas.
“Deciding which of these threats to prioritize countering is likely one of the central dilemmas for Russian operational planner,” the assessment says.
Contributing: The Associated Press
