Russia says 63 troops killed in Ukrainian attack on Makiivka
Al JazeeraUkraine puts death toll from New Year’s Eve strike in the occupied city of Makiivka at 400 Russian soldiers. Russia has said that 63 of its troops were killed during a Ukrainian New Year’s Eve attack on a makeshift barracks in the partly-occupied Donetsk region. The ministry’s statement came after the Strategic Communications Department of Ukraine’s armed forces said late on Sunday that 400 Russian troops were killed in the attack and another 300 were wounded. The building itself was badly damaged.” Igor Girkin, a former Federal Security Service officer who helped Russia annex the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea in 2014 and then organise pro-Russian separatist forces in eastern Ukraine, said on Monday that “the number of dead and wounded runs into many hundreds.” Girkin, who has bitterly criticised Russia’s military failures in Ukraine, said ammunition had been stored in the same building where the recruits had been accommodated. “Our sky will turn into a shield.” Zelenskyy on Sunday praised Ukrainians for showing gratitude to their troops and one another and said Russia’s efforts would prove useless.