Makiivka attack kills scores of recently mobilised Russian troops; reports say
Pjotr Sauer
A New Year’s Day attack on a complex in the Russian-controlled city of Makiivka killed scores of recently mobilised troops sent by Moscow, according to reports on both sides, in what could be one of the deadliest known incidents involving Russian conscripts so far.
Without claiming the strike, Ukraine’s military command said up to 400 Russian soldiers were killed in the incident in Makiivka, a city in the Moscow-controlled parts of the Donetsk region.
Pro-Russian authorities late on Sunday acknowledged that there were casualties, but did not comment on the Ukrainian figures.
Daniil Bezsonov, a senior Moscow proxy official in the Russian-occupied Donetsk region, said a Ukrainian missile struck a vocational school in Makiivka that housed soldiers two minutes after midnight on New Year’s Day.
“A massive blow was dealt to the vocational school from American MLRS Himars,” Bezsonov wrote in a post on the Telegram messaging app, referring to US-provided missiles. “There were dead and wounded, the exact number is still unknown,” he added.
Photographs circulating on social media show what appears to be the ruins of the building in Makiivka used by the Russian army as barracks.
The Guardian was not able to independently verify the reports.
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Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has praised Ukrainians for showing gratitude to the troops and one another and said Russia’s efforts would prove useless.
“Drones, missiles, everything else will not help them,” he said of the Russians. “Because we stand united. They are united only by fear.”
Ukraine’s air defence systems worked through the night to bring down incoming drones and to warn communities of the approaching danger, Reuters reported.
“It is loud in the region and in the capital: night drone attacks,” Kyiv governor Oleksiy Kuleba said. “Russians launched several waves of Shahed drones. Targeting critical infrastructure facilities. Air defence is at work.”
Russia, which has seized and claims to have annexed about a fifth of Ukraine, has turned to mass air strikes against Ukrainian cities since suffering humiliating defeats on the battlefield in the second half of 2022.
Makiivka attack kills scores of recently mobilised Russian troops; reports say
Pjotr Sauer
A New Year’s Day attack on a complex in the Russian-controlled city of Makiivka killed scores of recently mobilised troops sent by Moscow, according to reports on both sides, in what could be one of the deadliest known incidents involving Russian conscripts so far.
Without claiming the strike, Ukraine’s military command said up to 400 Russian soldiers were killed in the incident in Makiivka, a city in the Moscow-controlled parts of the Donetsk region.
Pro-Russian authorities late on Sunday acknowledged that there were casualties, but did not comment on the Ukrainian figures.
Daniil Bezsonov, a senior Moscow proxy official in the Russian-occupied Donetsk region, said a Ukrainian missile struck a vocational school in Makiivka that housed soldiers two minutes after midnight on New Year’s Day.
“A massive blow was dealt to the vocational school from American MLRS Himars,” Bezsonov wrote in a post on the Telegram messaging app, referring to US-provided missiles. “There were dead and wounded, the exact number is still unknown,” he added.
Photographs circulating on social media show what appears to be the ruins of the building in Makiivka used by the Russian army as barracks.
The Guardian was not able to independently verify the reports.
Ukrainian servicemen ride a tank, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in the village of Torske, Donetsk region.
A Ukrainian tank in the village of Torske. Photograph: ReutersUkraine has published the latest figures in relation to Russian losses since the beginning of the invasion last February.
It says an estimated 107,440 Russian soldiers have been killed, while it claims to have destroyed 283 aircraft and more than 3,000 Russian tanks.
The Ukrainian ministry of defence has claimed it shot down 39 Iranian-made Shahed drones, as well as a cruise missile, last night.
Earlier we reported that Ukraine’s regional military command in the country’s east said air defence systems destroyed nine Iranian-made Shahed drones over the Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia regions by the early hours of Monday.
Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, added that “45 ‘Shaheds’ were shot down on the first night of the year” in his Monday evening address.
39 Shahed-136/131 drones
2 Orlan-10 drones
Kh-59 cruise missile
These are the targets successfully shot down by the Ukrainian Air Force last night.
We are staying strong.
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) January 2, 2023 People walk through a damaged neighbourhood after the Russian missile attacks in the Solomyansk district of Kyiv, Ukraine.
People walk through a damaged neighbourhood after the Russian missile attacks in the Solomyansk district of Kyiv. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty ImagesMixed reports after Ukraine shells Russian-controlled city of MakiivkaAn attack on the eastern Ukrainian city of Makiivka in the Donetsk region occupied by Moscow’s forces has reportedly claimed several lives after a military quarters was hit.
The Moscow-installed administration of the Donetsk region said on Sunday that at least 25 rockets were fired at the region overnight on New Year’s Eve.
Russia’s Tass state news agency cited a local Moscow-installed official as saying that at least 15 people were injured in Makiivka, in a series of shelling with Himars rockets.
According to preliminary reports, over 15 people suffered wounds,” the official told the outlet.
In a separate report, Tass cited the Moscow-installed head of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), Denis Pushilin, as saying that Russian air defence systems intercepted many Ukrainian rockets aimed at the region on New Year’s Eve night.
Our air defence system was actively working. Otherwise, there would have been far more strikes. Well-coordinated work by our counter-battery struggle personnel and artillery did not allow the enemy to carry out these attacks with impunity,” Pushilin said.
A later report cited Moscow-installed Donetsk official Alexey Kulemzin as saying a “children’s and youth’s creativity centre building” had been damaged in the attacks on Makiivka.
Daniil Bezsonov, a senior Russian-backed official in the region, said that there was a “massive blow” on a vocational school, which according to preliminary information cited by Reuters served as military personnel quarters.
There were dead and wounded, the exact number is still unknown,” Bezsonov said in an update on Telegram late on Sunday night.
However, Ukrainian sources have reported the casualties as being much higher. Ukraine’s public broadcaster Suspilne carried a report claiming hundreds of Russian soldiers had died.
The Guardian was not able to independently verify the reports.
Before/after photos of the school building in Makiivka where Russia had stationed mobilized troops from the Saratov region, Russian telegram channels report. At midnight on NY, Ukraine destroyed the building – killing an unknown number of Russian troops – with a volley or HIMARs. pic.twitter.com/44ZL1HigQ8
— Christo Grozev (@christogrozev) January 2, 2023 Russia and Ukraine fight for control of P66 highway near Kremina: UK MoDOver the last five days, Russian and Ukrainian forces have probably been fighting for control of the P66 highway, north of the Russian-held Luhansk town of Kremina, the UK Ministry of Defence reports.
The P66 is a “key supply route for the northern section of Russia’s Donbas front from the Belgorod region of Russia” and its use has been disrupted by Ukrainian artillery since October, the ministry adds.
If Ukraine were able to secure the route, it would highly likely further undermine Russia’s defence of Kremina.”
Power and heating outages in KyivAs a result of overnight strikes on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, energy infrastructure facilities were damaged, causing power and heating outages, city mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Monday.
As a result of night shelling of the capital, energy infrastructure facilities were damaged. There were emergency power outages in the city. Accordingly, there are de-energised heat supply facilities,” he wrote in an update to early on Monday morning.
Klitschko added that Kyiv’s water supply has been unaffected.
Russian drones target KyivSeveral waves of Russian drones targeted critical infrastructure in Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv and surrounding areas early on Monday morning.
Air raid alerts were issued in Kyiv and across eastern Ukraine, beginning just before midnight and still wailing hours later.
Kyiv regional governor Oleksiy Kuleba said in an update issued to Telegram about 3am (0100 GMT) local time:
It is loud in the region and in the capital: night drone attacks.
Russians launched several waves of [Iranian-made] Shahed drones. Targeting critical infrastructure facilities. Air defence is at work.”
Debris from a destroyed drone hit Kyiv’s northeastern Desnianskiy district, wounding a 19-year-old man who was later taken to hospital, the city’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. The district, located on the left bank of the Dnieper River, is chiefly a residential area and the capital’s most populous district.
Local residents stand near a crater after a rocket on Kyiv, Ukraine on 1 January. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty ImagesBy 3am local time, the city’s military administration reported that 20 “aerial targets” were shot down above Kyiv by Ukraine’s air defence systems.
Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, shared a photo of the wreckage purportedly inflicted from a fallen drone in Kyiv’s Desnyanskyi district.
“Falling of UAV wreckage on the roadway. The windows in the house next door were damaged,” he wrote alongside the image posted to his Telegram channel around 1am on Monday.
Summary and welcomeHello and welcome back to the Guardian’s live coverage of the war in Ukraine. I’m Samantha Lock and I’ll be bringing you all the latest developments as they unfold over the next few hours.
Several waves of Russian drones targeted critical infrastructure in Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv and surrounding areas early on Monday morning.
As a result of the overnight strikes, energy infrastructure facilities were damaged, causing power and heating outages, city mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
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If you have just joined us, here are all the latest developments:
Several waves of Russian drones targeted critical infrastructure in Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv early on Monday with debris from a destroyed drone wounding one, the city’s mayor has said. Air raid sirens were announced just before midnight and explosions were reported in the capital’s northeastern Desnianskiy district with a 19-year-old man taken to hospital. The city military administration reported that 20 aerial targets were shot down by Ukraine’s air defence over Monday night.
Ukraine’s regional military command in the country’s east said air defence systems destroyed nine Iranian-made Shahed drones over the Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia regions by the early hours of Monday. Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskiy added that “45 ‘Shaheds’ were shot down on the first night of the year,” in his Monday evening address.
Ukraine’s most senior defence officials have said they believe Russia will attempt a second invasion from the north in the next couple of months, using troops who have been training for the past three months since being mobilised in October. But the Ukrainian forces defending the border say the Russians will not be able to break through as they did in February, when the Sumy region had no defensive lines. Both Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov, and the commander-in-chief of its armed forces, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, have named February as a possible period for attempted re-invasion.
Russia has claimed Ukraine’s forces shelled the city of Makiivka and other areas in the Donetsk region of Ukraine of which it occupies. The Moscow-installed administration of the Donetsk region said on Sunday that at least 25 rockets were fired at the region overnight on New Year’s Eve with reports saying that military quarters were hit, killing many. Daniil Bezsonov, a senior Russian-backed official in the region, said that there was a “massive blow” on a vocational school, which according to preliminary information served as military personnel quarters. “There were dead and wounded, the exact number is still unknown,” Bezsonov said on the Telegram messaging app.
Zelenskiy said his only wish for Ukrainians for 2023 was for victory as he resolved to stay the course. “I want to wish all of us one thing – victory,” he said in a video message shortly before midnight on Saturday. Zelenskiy reiterated that he would stay with his people while they were fighting for freedom. “We were told to surrender. We chose a counterattack,” he said. “We are ready to fight for it [freedom]. That’s why each of us is here. I’m here, we are here, you are here, everyone is here. We are all Ukraine.”
Russia claimed its strikes against Ukraine on New Year’s Eve – including the launch of more than 20 cruise missiles that killed at least three people – were targeting its neighbour’s drone production. A children’s hospital was among the buildings said to have been hit by Russian shelling. Ukrainian officials claim Russia is deliberately targeting civilians to sow fear.
Russian leaders issued a series of defiant messages ahead of the new year. President Vladimir Putin said Russia would “never give in” to the west, and was fighting for its “motherland, truth and justice … so that Russia’s security can be guaranteed”.