Monitoring Desk
KYIV: Kyiv has labelled Moscow’s claim that nearly 600 Ukrainian soldiers were killed in missile strikes as “propaganda”.
Without providing any evidence, Moscow claimed that a “mass missile strike” in the eastern city of Kramatorsk had killed over 600 Ukrainian forces.
It said it retaliated against a Ukrainian attack on a Russian base that killed several Russian soldiers on New Year’s Day.
However, the Ukrainian military terms the claim untrue.
“This is another evidence of Russian propaganda,” a spokesman for the Ukrainian army, Serhiy Cherevaty, told the BBC news.
Moscow claims killing 600 Ukrainian soldiers
Russia’s defence ministry said it had killed around 600 Ukrainian service members in a strike on buildings temporarily housing Ukrainian forces. Moscow claimed that over 1,300 Ukrainian troops were housed in two buildings that were targeted.
It called the strikes a “retaliatory attack” to avenge the deaths of 89 Russian soldiers killed in Makiivka.
Ukraine says nearly 400 people were killed or injured at Makiivka, while Russian nationalists have given numbers into the hundreds on social media.
Moscow has yet to offer evidence of Russia’s claim to have killed 600 Ukrainian soldiers.
There was further shelling in several parts of Ukraine overnight after the end of a 36-hour Russian ceasefire, so Orthodox Christians could celebrate Christmas. Evidence suggests this so-called truce was not adhered to by Moscow.
Ukrainian authorities said at least one person was killed in the Kharkiv region in the northeast.
Blasts were also reported in the southern cities of Melitopol and Zaporizhzhia.
Russia’s defence ministry said that, after negotiations, Ukraine had returned 50 captured Russian soldiers. Ukraine confirmed that it had received the same number of soldiers from Russia.
