Ukrainian school rejects Russian claims of killing troops

Officials at a vocational school in Kramatorsk on Monday dismissed Russia’s claims that some of its missiles killed 600 Ukrainian troops on the school’s property. Russia’s Defense Ministry specifically named the school as the site where it claimed to strike two temporary barracks housing 1,300 Ukrainian troops. Independent observers at the site reported no evidence of military presence or any evidence of casualties from the attack.

Why did Russia make this claim? It is unclear, but it could be for reputational reasons. Russia claimed the attack was a revenge strike for losses it had sustained in a Ukrainian attack on Makiivka on New Year’s Eve. The Institute for the Study of War, a think tank based in Washington, D.C., reported that military bloggers in Russia are frustrated with the Russian Ministry of Defense’s decision to make false claims about its successes, rather than hold military leaders accountable for its failures. Both sides have regularly claimed to kill hundreds of each other’s soldiers in attacks, but their claims can seldom be independently verified because of the fighting.

Dig deeper: Read Evgeny Kosykh’s report in WORLD Magazine about the mercenaries fighting for the Kremlin.