Kyiv, Ukraine — The top brass of the Russian military came under increasing scrutiny on Wednesday as details emerged about how Ukrainian shelling of one building killed at least 89 Russian soldiers, and possibly more. rice field.
Last weekend’s spectacle in the Russian-controlled eastern Ukraine town of Makyovka, where soldiers were temporarily stationed, appeared to be a recipe for disaster. Hundreds of Russian troops were reportedly congregating in buildings near the front lines of the war, within range of the enemy’s Western-supplied precision artillery, presumably sitting near ammunition depots, unconscious. helped the Kyiv army to set their sights on them.
MORE: French news crew nearly hit by Russian missile on live broadcast
It was one of the deadliest single attacks against Kremlin forces since the war began more than a decade ago, and the highest death toll in a single incident ever acknowledged by both sides of the conflict. It was from
The Ukrainian military claimed that about 400 mobilized Russian soldiers who were housed in a vocational school building were killed in the Makivka attack. Officials say about 300 more were injured. Both claims could not be confirmed due to the fighting.
Russian forces tried to blame the soldiers’ own deaths.In a statement late Tuesday, Lieutenant General Sergei Sevlyukov said their phone signals had allowed Kyiv forces to “determine the coordinates of the positions of the soldiers” and launch an attack. said it was possible.
Emily Ferris, a Russian and Eurasian research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London, told The Associated Press to “confirm whether cell phone signals and geolocation were the precise source of the attack.” is very difficult,” he said.
She pointed out that active-duty Russian soldiers are forbidden to use mobile phones. This is precisely due to the sheer number of cases of its use against targets in recent years, including by both sides in the war in Ukraine.Modern technology has been put to good use in this conflict.
She also said that blaming the soldiers themselves is a “helpful narrative” for Moscow, as it helps deflect criticism and draw attention to the official cell phone ban.
Russian President Vladimir Putin also tried to keep the conversation going as he attended the launching ceremony of the Russian Navy’s new hypersonic missile-launched frigate on Wednesday via video link.
Putin said the Zircon missiles carried by the Admiral Gorshkov frigate were a “unique weapon” capable of flying at nine times the speed of sound and at a range of 1,000 kilometers (620 miles). Russia says missiles cannot be intercepted.
Meanwhile, away from the battlefield, France announced on Wednesday that it will send the first French-made AMX-10 RC light tank from a Western European country to Ukraine.On Wednesday afternoon, French President Emmanuel Macron and Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelenskiy After a telephone conversation with the president.
The French president’s office did not say when or how many tanks would be delivered. NATO members gave Ukraine anti-tank and air defense missiles, rocket launchers.
The weekend’s attack on Makyivka appeared to be the latest blow to the Kremlin’s military prestige as it struggles to advance its invasion of neighboring countries amid a successful Ukrainian counteroffensive.
Analyst Ferris said, however, that “over-reliance on this strike is a bit of a caution as a sign of Russian military weakness.”
In recent days, as details of the strike have trickled down, some observers have found military sloppiness at the root of so many deaths.
British intelligence said Wednesday that Moscow’s “unprofessional” military actions were likely to be part of the cause of the high casualties.
The UK Ministry of Defense tweeted: “Given the extent of the damage, it is possible that ammunition was stored near military accommodation and that it detonated during the attack, causing a secondary explosion. There is,’ he said.
In the same post, the ministry said the building hit by the Ukrainian missile was just 12 kilometers from the front line, within “one of the most contested areas of the conflict” in the Donetsk region, partly occupied by Russia. (7.5 miles) away. .
“The Russian military has a record of insecure ammunition storage long before the current war, but this incident highlights how unprofessional practices contribute to Russia’s high casualty rate. We are doing it,” the update added.
The Russian Defense Ministry rarely acknowledges losses, initially saying 63 soldiers were killed in the attack. However, the death toll rose as emergency services searched the ruins. The regimental deputy commander was among the dead.
It has sparked renewed criticism within Russia over how the Ministry of Defense handles a wide range of military operations.
Vladren Tatarsky, a well-known military blogger, has accused Russian generals of “showing their own stupidity and misunderstanding of what’s going on in an army where everyone has a mobile phone.”
“In addition, where there is coverage, artillery fire is often coordinated over the phone. There is no other way,” Tatarsky wrote in a Telegram post.
Others condemned the decision to station hundreds of troops in one place. “The mobile phone story is not very convincing,” writes military blogger Semyon Pegov. “The only remedy is not to pack the people into a large building. Instead of having 500 people in one place, he just spreads them out to 10 different places.”
According to unconfirmed Russian-language media reports, the victims were reservists mobilized from the Samara region of southwestern Russia.
The War Research Institute saw further evidence in the incident that Moscow was not properly utilizing the reservists it began recruiting last September.
“The systematic failure of Russia’s force generators has undermined Russia’s operational capabilities in Ukraine and continues to plague personnel capacity,” the think tank said in a report late Tuesday.
Ferris, of the Royal United Service Institute, said the Makeovka attack showed that the Russian military was interested in increasing the number of its troops rather than training them in wartime techniques.
“That’s how Russia actually wages a lot of its wars, by overwhelming the enemy with numbers and men,” she said. It’s a product.”
In a war of attrition, the Russians attacked Bakhmut in Donetsk despite heavy losses. Wagner Group, a private military contractor owned by Evgeny Prigozhin, a billionaire businessman with close ties to Putin, is spearheading the Bakhmut offensive.
U.S. intelligence officials have determined that 90 percent of Russian casualties fighting for Bakhmut were prisoners Wagner pulled from prisons, a senior government official said on condition of anonymity.
The White House last month said intelligence findings showed Wagner had mobilized about 50,000 soldiers in Ukraine, including 40,000 conscripted prisoners. The US estimates that Wagner spends about $100 million a month on fighting.
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Kozlowska reports from London. Her Aamer Madhani of Washington contributed to this report.
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