The Kremlin’s apparently false claim that its forces killed 600 Ukrainian troops in a retaliation strike is generating new discontent among Russian military bloggers critical of military leadership since the February invasion, a Washington-based think tank says.
The Russian Defense Ministry said the strike Saturday targeted a temporary Ukrainian deployment point at a school in the Donbas region city of Kramatorsk in retaliation for a Ukrainian military strike on New Year’s Eve. The Kremlin says the Ukrainian attack killed 89 Russian troops; Ukraine said its strike killed up to 400 Russians.
The Institute for the Study of War says in its latest assessment of the war that a Finnish reporter visited the site of the retaliatory strike on Sunday and said it hit an empty school.
Yana Pristupa, the school’s deputy director, also rejected Moscow’s claims, telling Associated Press reporters at the site that “nobody saw a single spot of blood anywhere… It’s just people cleaning up.”
Several Russian military bloggers responded negatively to the Russian claim, the assessment said. The bloggers noted that the Russian ministry frequently presents fraudulent claims and criticized military leadership for fabricating a story instead of holding Russian leadership responsible.
Russian blogger Grey Zone wrote on Telegram that “instead of the real destruction of the enemy personnel, which would have been a worthy response, a media operation of retaliation was invented.”
Other developments:
►Two people were killed and a 13-year-old girl was among at least five people wounded by a Russian rocket strike on a market in the northeastern Kharkiv region, Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said. More people could be trapped under the rubble, he said.
►More than two dozen Ukrainian junior athletes living in areas of war-battered eastern Ukraine are training in Cyprus for a month under an Olympic Dreams project.
KYIV DENIES RUSSIAN CLAIMthat a ‘retaliation’ missile strike killed 600 Ukraine soldiers
US says Iran complicit in Russian war crimes
Iran’s sale of lethal drones to Russia for its ongoing invasion of Ukraine means the country may be “contributing to widespread war crimes,” a White House spokesman said Monday. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan’s remark to reporters marked some of the sharpest U.S. rhetoric against Iran since it began providing weapons to Russia soon after the February invasion. The U.S. and EU are looking to further ostracize both nations while struggling to stop transfer of weapons desperately needed by the Kremlin.
Sullivan said Iran had chosen “to go down a road where their weapons are being used to kill civilians in Ukraine and to try to plunge cities into cold and darkness, which from our point of view, puts Iran in a place where it could potentially be contributing” to Russia’s war crimes.
Kremlin sticks to retaliation story
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said reports from Westerners who visited Kramatorsk after the retaliatory strike have not shaken the faith of leaders in Moscow on the veracity of the Defense Ministry claims.
“The Defense Ministry is the main, legitimate and comprehensive source of information about the course of the special military operation,” Peskov said.
The Kremlin claimed a retaliatory strike in October that was clearly not a fabrication. After Ukraine struck a bridge linking the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula with Russia, the Kremlin began a massive barrage against Ukraine’s energy facilities billed as retaliation for the bridge attack. Relentless bombardments against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure are now a common occurrence.
Russians crack down on dissent among rich and famous
Russian is cracking down on dissent. Authorities have announced a criminal probe against Artur Smolyaninov, a popular actor critical of the war in Ukraine. Smolyaninov told Novaya Gazeta Europe that “if I were to go to this war, I would only fight for Ukraine.” Parliament member Sultan Khamzayev requested opening a criminal case and asked that Smolyaninov’s passport be revoked.
Russia’s Interior Ministry placed prominent philanthropist Boris Zimin on an international most wanted list on fraud charges. Zimin has funded several Russian independent media outlets as well as projects of imprisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Zimin reportedly left Russia seven years ago.
Contributing: The Associated Press
