Люди преклоняют колени, когда украинские военнослужащие несут гроб своего товарища Олега Юрченко, убитого на поле боя с российскими войсками в Донецкой области, во время церемонии поминовения на площади Независимости в Киеве, Украина, воскресенье, 8 января 2023 года. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky )
Russia claims deadly attack, but Kyiv denies anyone killed
AP:The Russian military claimed Sunday to have carried out deadly missile strikes on barracks used by Ukrainian troops in retaliation for the deaths of dozens of Russian soldiers in a rocket attack a week ago. Ukrainian officials denied there were any casualties.
The Russian Defense Ministry said its missiles hit two temporary bases housing 1,300 Ukrainian troops in Kramatorsk, in the eastern Donetsk region, killing 600 of them. Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said the strikes were retaliation for Ukraine’s attack in Makiivka, in which at least 89 Russian soldiers died.
Serhii Cherevatyi, a spokesperson for Ukraine's forces in the east, told The Associated Press that Russian strikes on Kramatorsk damaged only civilian infrastructure, adding: “The armed forces of Ukraine weren’t affected.”
The Donetsk regional administration said seven Russian missiles hit Kramatorsk and two more hit Konstantynivka, without causing any casualties. It said an educational institution, an industrial facility and garages were damaged in Kramatorsk, and an industrial zone was hit in Kostyantynivka.
Kramatorsk Mayor Oleksandr Honcharenko said two school buildings and eight apartment houses were hit overnight, with photos he posted showing no sign of any extensive damage.
In the early hours of Jan. 1, Ukrainian forces fired rockets at a facility in Makiivka, also in the eastern Donetsk region, where Russian soldiers were stationed, killing dozens of them in one of the deadliest attacks on the Kremlin’s forces since the war began more than 10 months ago.
Also on Sunday, the Ukrainian military claimed to have hit a residential hall of a medical university in Rubizhne, a town in the Russian-occupied eastern Luhansk region, killing 14 Russian soldiers housed there. The number of wounded was unknown, it said.
Elsewhere in the east, Donetsk Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said one person was killed in strikes on Bakhmut, and eight others were wounded.
In the northeastern Kharkiv region, the town of Merefa was hit during the night, killing one person and two other settlements in the region were shelled, Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said.
The latest developments come after Russian forces ended a partially observed cease-fire timed to coincide with Orthodox Christmas celebrations on Saturday.
Russia and Ukraine exchanged prisoners Sunday, swapping 50 on each side, according to Konashenkov, the spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry, and Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian president's office.
-
- In World
- 9 January 2023 00:12
In World
-
A hard-right critic of NATO who has praised Russia is set to face a centre-right opposition leader in a presidential election run-off in Romania that could undermine its pro-Western stance after a shock outcome in the first-round vote.
-
The Ukrainian military said on Monday that it found Western-made parts inside North Korean ballistic missiles, marking the latest discovery for Kyiv as it continues to find technology from Europe and the US inside weapons used by the Russian military.
-
Senior Russian security official Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday that if the West supplied nuclear weapons to Ukraine then Moscow could consider such a transfer to be tantamount to an attack on Russia, providing grounds for a nuclear response.
-
Progressive filmmaker and activist Michael Moore accused President Biden of ruining his legacy and leading America "right into World War III" in a scathing open letter to the president.
Leave a review