RIA "Novosti" in the material under the heading "Special operation, January 8: The Russian Armed Forces carried out a retaliation operation for Makeevka" writes :
“The Russian Armed Forces, during the operation of retaliation for Makiivka, destroyed more than 600 Ukrainian military personnel in Kramatorsk with a massive missile strike, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Sunday.”
Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said :
“Russian intelligence facilities uncovered and reliably confirmed through several independent channels the points of temporary deployment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the city of Kramatorsk. There were more than 700 Ukrainian servicemen in hostel No. 28 and more than 600 Ukrainian servicemen in hostel No. 47. As a result of a massive missile attack on these points of temporary deployment of units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, more than 600 Ukrainian servicemen were killed.”
The Defense Ministry's information somewhat surprised the foreign journalists in Kramatorsk. Reuters reported after Konashenkov's statement:
The Reuters team visited two dormitories that Moscow said were temporarily hosting Ukrainian troops and that it had chosen as a target for a retaliatory strike for the New Year's attack. <…>
But none of the dormitories in Kramatorsk appear to have been directly hit or seriously damaged. There was no clear indication that soldiers lived there; there were no bodies, no traces of blood. <…>
In Kramatorsk, residents of neighborhoods near dormitories spoke of a massive explosion that rocked their homes during the night, but said it was not unusual for the region, which is close to the eastern front.
Residents said they heard the explosions shortly after 11 p.m. local time — midnight Moscow time, when Russia's Orthodox Christmas ceasefire was due to end.
The Russian statement mentions two buildings – a dormitory for school No. 47 and a dormitory belonging to school No. 28, both in Kramatorsk.
Pictures taken by Reuters show several broken windows in the dormitory of school No. 47. There was a large crater in the yard. The windows of the neighboring school were broken.
The dormitory of school No. 28 was not damaged at all. The funnel was about 50 meters away, closer to the garages. Several windows in the school were broken.”
CNN in a report from Kramatorsk notes :
“The CNN team on site did not see any signs of mass casualties in the area. There is no unusual activity in Kramatorsk and its environs, including the vicinity of the city morgue.”
Antti Kuronen, a journalist for the Finnish broadcasting company Yle, tweeted:
“Russia claims that hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers were killed as a result of a missile attack on a school in Kramatorsk. I'm in there, and it's a little strange that the building isn't even sealed. This morning, local residents also did not see ambulances here.
I heard explosions last night when this place was hit. A large funnel (possibly from the S-300) in front of the school. There was no direct hit. This morning, the military visited the site and said that there was no one in the building.
Another rocket fell in front of these old garages. I must say that at this stage I trust my own observations and statements by the Ukrainian side more than the Russian Ministry of Defense claims about more than 600 dead Ukrainian soldiers.”
The correspondent of the Italian newspaper La Repubblica Daniele Raineri writes about the same.
Military expert Yuri Fedorov noted in Alexander Plushev's Breakfast Show:
“This is indirect confirmation that hundreds of people died in Makiivka – apparently, somewhere around 500 – otherwise it is not clear where the figure of 600 came from in this message from the Ministry of Defense.”
The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation claims that as a result of a missile attack on the building of a vocational school in Makeyevka on New Year's Eve, 89 Russian servicemen stationed there were killed.
