Russia blames ‘massive,’ illicit cellphone usage by its troops for Ukraine strike that killed 89 | 24CA News

Russia’s Defence Ministry stated on Wednesday that 89 service members had been killed within the Ukrainian assault on Makiivka within the Moscow-controlled elements of the Donetsk area, including the primary cause for the assault was unauthorized use of cellphones by the troops.

“It is already obvious that the main reason for what happened was the switching on and massive use — contrary to the prohibition — by personnel of mobile phones in a reach zone of enemy weapons,” the ministry stated in a press release.

“This factor allowed the enemy to track and determine the co-ordinates of the soldiers’ location for a missile strike.”

The strike simply after midnight on New Year’s Day — on a college that was transformed into army quarters in Makiivka — has spurred anger amongst Russian nationalists and a few lawmakers, questioning the army technique used there. Russia beforehand stated 63 of its troopers had been killed.

The Defence Ministry stated 4 rockets from the U.S.-made HIMARS launchers hit the constructing, including that “from the detonation of the warheads of the HIMARS rockets, the ceilings of the building collapsed.”

The ministry added in its assertion on the Telegram messaging app {that a} fee is investigating the circumstances of the assault.

The ministry additionally instructed that in return, it launched airstrikes launched at a “hardware concentration” close to Druzhkivka railway station in Donetsk, killing as much as 200 Ukrainian personnel, and destroying 4 HIMARS launchers and greater than 800 rockets.

Reuters was not capable of independently confirm the report.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, an aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, stated on Tuesday that two folks had been wounded within the assault on Druzhkivka, which destroyed a hockey area.