KYIV
\nUkraine says it has killed around 400 Russian soldiers in a missile attack on the occupied Donetsk region.
\nThe missile targeted a building in the city of Makiivka, where Russian forces were thought to be stationed.
\nThe figure has not been verified. Pro-Russian authorities acknowledged casualties, but did not confirm the figures being reported.
\nIn Kyiv, air raids sounded on Sunday night, as the latest wave of drone and missile strikes from Russia continued.
\nDaniil Bezsonov, a senior Russian-backed official in the occupied parts of Donetsk, said the missile struck Makiivka two minutes after midnight on New Year\u2019s Day.
\n\u201cA massive blow was dealt to the vocational school from American MLRS Himars,\u201d he said, referring to US-provided missiles.
\n\u201cThere were dead and wounded, the exact number is still unknown,\u201d Bezsonov added in a post on the messaging app Telegram.
\nAlthough access to Russian-controlled areas is restricted, a number of Russian commentators and bloggers acknowledged the attack – but suggested the numbers were lower than claimed.
\nVladimir Solovyov, a Russian presenter, wrote on Telegram \u201closses were significant… but not even close\u201d to 400.
\nBut Igor Girkin, a Russian military veteran turned commentator, said hundreds had been killed and wounded, and the building itself \u201calmost completely destroyed\u201d.
\nHe said the victims were mainly mobilised troops – that is, recent conscripts, rather than those who chose to fight. He also said ammunition was stored in the same building as the soldiers, making the damage worse.
\nAccording to the Ukrainian military, 300 were wounded in addition to the estimated 400 killed.
\nUkraine\u2019s army claims, almost daily, to have killed dozens, sometimes hundreds, of soldiers in attacks, so caution is needed. But if the claims are confirmed, this could be one of the deadliest attacks by Ukraine on Russian targets in the war.
\nUkraine has not confirmed the strikes were carried out with Himars missiles, maintaining a long-held strategy of not releasing details about its attacks.
\nIt merely said, sarcastically, that the deaths were the result of \u201ccareless handling of heating devices, neglect of safety measures, smoking in an unidentified place\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KYIV Ukraine says it has killed around 400 Russian soldiers in a missile attack on the occupied Donetsk region. The missile targeted a building in the city of Makiivka, where Russian forces were thought to be stationed. The figure has not been verified. Pro-Russian authorities acknowledged casualties, but did not confirm the figures being reported. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305127,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-305104","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n