College dismisses Russian claims hundreds of Ukrainian troops were killed there
Russian defence chiefs said 600 Ukrainian troops had been killed in a strike in Kramatorsk.
Officials at a school in an eastern Ukraine city dismissed claims by Russia that hundreds of Ukrainian troops were killed in a missile strike there.
They said a rocket merely blew out windows and damaged classrooms.
Russia specifically named the vocational school in Kramatorsk as the target of an attack in the almost 11-month war.
The Russian Defence Ministry said its missiles hit two temporary bases housing 1,300 Ukrainian troops in the city, killing 600 of them, late on Saturday.
Associated Press (AP) reporters visiting the scene in sunny weather on Monday saw a four-storey concrete building with most of its windows blown out.
Inside, locals were cleaning up debris, sweeping up broken glass and hurling broken furniture out into a missile crater below.
A separate, six-storey school building was largely undamaged.
There were no signs of a Ukrainian military presence or any casualties.
Yana Pristupa, the school’s deputy director, scoffed at Moscow’s claims of hitting a troop concentration.
“Nobody saw a single spot of blood anywhere,” she told the AP.
“Everyone saw yesterday that no one carried out any bodies. It’s just people cleaning up.”
She said before the war began last February, the school had more than 300 students, most of them studying mechanical engineering, with most lessons moving online when Russia invaded.
The students “are now in shock”, she said, adding: “What a great facility it was.”
On Sunday, Ukrainian officials quickly denied Russia’s claims it had lost a large number of soldiers in the attack.
Despite the absence of any evidence, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said reports from the scene did not shake senior officials’ faith in defence authorities.
“The Defence Ministry is the main, legitimate and comprehensive source of information about the course of the special military operation,” Mr Peskov said on Monday in a conference call with reporters, using the Kremlin’s term for the war.
Both sides have regularly claimed killing hundreds of each other’s soldiers in attacks.
The claims can seldom be independently verified because of the fighting.
Moscow’s allegations may have backfired domestically, however, as some Russian military bloggers criticised them.
The Institute For The Study Of War think tank said the bloggers “responded negatively to the Russian (Ministry of Defence’s) claim, pointing out that the Russian MoD frequently presents fraudulent claims and criticising Russian military leadership for fabricating a story … instead of holding Russian leadership responsible for the losses accountable”.
A Russian Defence Ministry spokesman said the strikes on Kramatorsk were in retaliation for Ukraine’s attack in Makiivka on New Year’s Eve, in which at least 89 Russian soldiers gathered at a temporary barracks died, according to Moscow.
Ukrainian authorities said hundreds were killed.
Such revenge strikes have occurred before.
When Ukraine in early October struck a bridge linking the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula with Russia, damaging an important supply artery for the Kremlin’s faltering war effort in southern Ukraine and hitting a key symbol of Russian power in the region, the Kremlin sent a first massive barrage against Ukraine’s energy facilities.
It was billed as retaliation for the bridge attack and heralded a period of relentless bombardments against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
Ukraine’s deputy defence minister said on Monday that Russian forces have launched a fresh assault on the town of Soledar in the eastern Donetsk region.
Taking Soledar would allow Russia to intensify its attacks on the strategically key city of Bakhmut, where intense fighting has destroyed an estimated 60% of buildings.
Ukraine’s presidential office reported on Monday that at least three civilians were killed and 12 others hurt over the previous 24 hours as nine Ukrainian regions in the south-east of the country were shelled.
In one attack on Monday, two people were killed and five others, including a 13-year-old girl, were hurt by a Russian rocket strike which hit a village market in the northeastern Kharkiv region, Ukrainian officials said.
Kharkiv regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said the strike hit Shevchenkove village. Photographs on his Telegram channel showed ruined pavilions, some of them still on fire and rubble all around them.
According to Ukrainian officials, more people could be trapped under the rubble. A rescue operation to find them was underway.
Russia maintains it is fighting against the might of Nato, not just the Ukrainians.
“The sooner the citizens of Ukraine realise that the West is fighting Russia with their hands, the more lives will be saved,” Mr Patrushev said in an interview with Argumenty i Fakty.
Meanwhile, two UK citizens working as volunteers in eastern Ukraine have disappeared, the Ukrainian national police said on Monday.
Andrew Bagshaw and Christopher Perry left Kramatorsk on Friday bound for Soledar, where heavy fighting is reported, and contact with them was lost, police said.
Mr Bagshaw, a resident of New Zealand, was in Ukraine to assist in delivering humanitarian aid, according to New Zealand media reports.
