Russia says cellphone use led to attack

Toll at building where forces housed rises to 89

KYIV, Ukraine – Unauthorized use of cellphones by Russian soldiers led to a deadly Ukrainian rocket attack on the facility where they were stationed, according to the Russian military, as it raised the death toll from the weekend attack to 89.

Gen. Lt. Sergei Sevryukov said in a statement late Tuesday that phone signals allowed Kyiv’s forces to “determine the coordinates of the location of military personnel” and launch a strike.

The Russian military is taking unspecified measures to “prevent similar tragic incidents in the future,” Sevryukov said, and promised to punish officials responsible for the blunder.

The attack, one of the deadliest on the Kremlin’s forces since the start of the war over 10 months ago, occurred one minute into the new year, according to Sevryukov.

It was the latest blow to the Kremlin’s military prestige as it struggles to defeat its neighbor, and stirred renewed criticism inside Russia of the way the war is being conducted amid a successful Ukrainian counter off ens ive.

Ukrainian forces fired six rockets from a U.S.-provided HIMARS multiple launch system at a building where the soldiers were stationed. Two rockets were downed but four hit the building and detonated, prompting the collapse of the structure.

Details of the strike have trickled out in recent days. U.K. intelligence officials said Wednesday that Moscow’s “unprofessional” military practices were likely partly to blame for the high casualty rate on the troops.

“Given the extent of the damage, there is a realistic possibility that ammunition was being stored near to troop accommodation, which detonated during the strike, creating secondary explosions,” the U.K. Defense Ministry said in a Twitter post.

In the same post, the ministry said that the building struck by Ukrainian missiles was little more than 7.5 miles from the front line, within “one of the most contested areas of the conflict,” in the partially Russian-occupied Donetsk region.

“The Russian military has a record of unsafe ammunition storage from well before the current war, but this incident highlights how unprofessional practices contribute to Russia’s high casualty rate,” the update added.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin-appointed leader of Donetsk, one of four regions that Moscow illegally annexed in September, on Wednesday praised the “courage and true heroism” of the dead Russian soldiers.

Denis Pushilin said in a Telegram post that some of those killed tried to pull their comrades from the burning building.

In Samara, in southwestern Russia, local residents gathered Tuesday for an Orthodox service in memory of the dead. The service was followed by a minute’s silence, and flowers were laid at a Soviet-era war memorial, the state RIA Novosti agency reported. Unconfirmed reports in Russian-language media said the victims were mobilized reservists from the region.

The Russian Defense Ministry, in a rare admission of losses, initially said the strike killed 63 troops. But as emergency crews sifted through the rubble of the building, the death toll mounted. The regiment’s deputy commander was among the dead. Unconfirmed reports put the death toll much higher.

The Strategic Communications Directorate of Ukraine’s armed forces claimed Sunday that around 400 mobilized Russian soldiers were killed in a vocational school building in Makiivka with about 300 others wounded. That claim couldn’t be independently verified. The Russian statement said the strike occurred “in the area of Makiivka” and didn’t mention the school.

Ukraine’s presidential office said at least five Ukrainian civilians were killed and 13 others were wounded in the country over the previous 24 hours, as Russian forces struck at nine regions in the country’s south and east.

Ukraine continues to seek Western help in its fight against the invasion.

At a European Union-Ukraine summit on Feb. 3, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is due to hold talks with EU Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen about continued European support.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock pledged to stay the course with Ukraine. “Just as the Ukrainians won’t let up in their fight for their freedom and the independence of their country, we won’t let even the slightest doubt arise about our determined support,” she said on Wednesday.

DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES Construction workers climb onto the roof of a destroyed church Wednesday in Bohorodychne, a village in Donetsk region, Ukraine, that came under heavy attack by Russian forces last summer. A few residents came back to restore their destroyed houses and resume life in the village after it was freed from Russian occupation.