Moscow: Dozens of Russian soldiers killed
A Ukrainian strike against a building housing Russian service members in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region killed dozens of soldiers, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Monday.
The strike comes after key infrastructure facilities in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, were targeted by drones overnight, officials said. The assaults were part of the latest wave of attacks throughout the country over New Year’s weekend that left at least four civilians dead.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said 63 service members were killed in the Ukrainian strike in Donetsk shortly after midnight on New Year’s Day. The ministry said Monday that Ukrainian forces struck a building near Makiivka, where Russian service members were stationed.
The Washington Post could not independently verify the reports of a strike or the number of casualties, which varied widely, with Ukraine’s military claiming that 400 Russian service members were killed, according to Reuters.
Several waves of drones targeted infrastructure facilities in the Kyiv region on Sunday evening and into Monday, said Oleksiy Kuleba, the regional governor. The Kyiv City Military Administration said 20 drones were shot down, with Kuleba saying on Telegram: “Air defense works.” Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said early Monday that the attacks had damaged energy facilities, forcing emergency power outages in the city. He said earlier that a 19-year-old man was hospitalized because of the attacks on Kyiv.
At least four civilians were killed and dozens injured during attacks throughout Ukraine on New Year’s Eve, officials said. The dead included one in Kyiv, one in Zaporizhzhia and one in Kherson, according to regional and federal officials. In the city of Khmelnytskyi in western Ukraine, a 22-year-old woman who was wounded in Saturday’s attacks died of her injuries, the regional governor said.
Russian and Ukrainian forces are probably fighting over a key supply route near the eastern town of Kreminna in the Luhansk region, Britain’s Defense Ministry said. Both sides “have probably been fighting for control of the P66 highway,” north of the Russian stronghold of Kreminna, for the past five days, the ministry said.