Russia’s Defense Ministry announced on Sunday that it had killed more than 600 Ukrainian soldiers in a massive missile strike on buildings in eastern Ukraine where Ukrainian forces were temporarily stationed, Reuters reported. However, the Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk did not hit its targets, and there were no obvious casualties, a Reuters reporter reported on Sunday.

20:00 La Repubblica journalist Daniele Raineri posted two photos on Twitter of two hostels in Kramatorsk, which the Russians say were hit by missiles and where hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers died. In addition, a Reuters correspondent reported that the Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk missed its targets, and there are no obvious signs of casualties.

Daniele Raineri says that none of the dormitories (28 and 47) were hit by Russian missiles, they fell to the ground in front of the buildings and the buildings are empty.

18:40 The Armed Forces of Ukraine denied the statement of the Russian Federation

The representative of the Eastern Group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Serhii Cherevaty, emphasized that the statement of the Russian Ministry of Defense is not true, as Russian troops do not have the ability to carry out high-precision strikes, Ukrainian Pravda reports.

It said the Kramatorsk strike was in retaliation for Ukraine’s deadly attack earlier this year on Russian barracks in Makiivka, a part of Donetsk region controlled by Moscow’s forces.

“More than 600 Ukrainian servicemen were killed as a result of the massive rocket attack on these points of temporary deployment of units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” the agency said in a statement, cited by RIA.

Reuters could not immediately confirm the defense ministry’s statement.

Ukraine has not commented on Russia’s claim that it killed more than 600 Ukrainian soldiers in a missile strike, but the city’s mayor said this morning that no one was killed in the Russian missile attack that took place on the night of January 7 at 8.

According to him, the Russian occupiers shelled Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region with rockets, many buildings were damaged, but there were no casualties.

“Consequences of the night rocket shelling of Kramatorsk. 2 educational institutions, 8 residential buildings and garages were damaged,” said Kramatorsk Mayor Oleksandr Honcharenko.

Attack of Ukrainians from Makiyivka on Russians

The Ukrainian military says the attack on Makiivka killed about 400 Russian troops using Khymars missile systems, a weapon the United States has supplied to Ukraine, while Russia has said 89 Russian troops were killed.

The Ministry of Defense of Russia apparently blamed the Ukrainian military for the attack on the military themselves, calling the “main cause” of the incident the widespread use of mobile phones by Russian soldiers “in violation of the ban”, allowing Ukraine to determine the coordinates of the location of soldiers.

The spokesman of the Eastern Group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Serhii Tserevatii, said that “using phones with geolocation is a mistake. But it’s clear that this version looks a little funny.”

“Of course it is [utilizare a telefoanelor] it was not the main reason. The main reason was that they could not covertly deploy these personnel. And we took advantage of this, having identified the target, destroyed it,” Cherevaty added.

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