Russian military bloggers posted angry messages on Monday after reports emerged of the deaths of hundreds of Russian soldiers following HIMARS strikes on a boarding school at a former vocational school in Makiivka, an occupied town near Donetsk, the regional capital of the same name.

Images posted online show smoldering piles of rubble where the sprawling two-story building once stood.

Daniil Bezsonov, a senior official stationed by Russia in the occupied parts of Donetsk region, said the building was hit “massively” by American-made missiles just two minutes after midnight on New Year’s Eve.

According to preliminary information, it was used as a headquarters for mobilized personnel, he said, according to Reuters.

“There are dead and injured, the exact number is still unknown. The building itself was badly damaged,” Bezsonov added in Telegram. Russian state news agency TASS reports that only 15 people were injured.

The ironic reaction of Ukrainians and the fury of Russian bloggers

The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine stated that at least 400 Russians died there “due to careless handling of heating devices”.

Igor Girkin, a former commander of pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine who has become one of Russia’s most prominent nationalist military bloggers, also said the death toll was in the hundreds.

Ammunition was stored in the building, which exploded when the barracks were hit.

“What happened in Makiivka is terrible,” said Archangel Spetznaz Z, another Russian military blogger with more than 700,000 followers on Telegram.

“Who thought of placing a large number of personnel in one building, where even a fool would understand that even if hit with artillery, there would be many wounded or dead?” he added.

A source close to the Russian leadership in Donetsk told Reuters that reports of casualties were exaggerated and that the death toll was less than 100 dead.