How Ukraine Upset Russia With Major, Deadly Strike – Following months of missile bombardments from Russian forces across major Ukrainian cities, Ukrainian forces killed dozens of Russian troops on New Year’s Eve using U.S.-supplied artillery systems.
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Moscow confirmed the strikes on Monday in a rare admission of a Ukrainian success story in the conflict.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense confirmed in a Telegram post on Monday, following a period of rumors and speculation about a major Ukrainian strike, that 63 Russian soldiers were killed after four HIMARS rockets hit a provisional base in the occupied Donetsk region.
The Russian government confirmed that two rockets out of six total were shot down before they could reach their target.
The damaging Ukrainian strike occurred at a Russian base in Makiivka. It was sop bad for the Russian side that it drew criticism of the Kremlin from officials in the self-styled Donetsk People’s Republic, a region of Ukraine annexed in September by Russia.
Local media outlets in Donetsk reported that the strikes occurred at midnight on New Year’s Day. The strike
According to the Institute for the Study of War, the Russian Ministry of Defense is “likely attempting to deflect the blame for its poor operational security (OPSEC) onto Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) officials and mobilized forces.” The think tank also suggested that the “vague acknowledgment” of the strike “generated criticism of the Russian military command.”
Ukrainian officials confirmed that the strike was coordinated by their forces, with the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine confirming a Ukrainian strike on Russian soldiers and military equipment that destroyed up to 10 pieces of military hardware.
As of January 2, however, Ukrainian officials did not reveal an official casualty figure.
How Will Russia Respond to Ukraine?
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested on Monday that Russia could respond to the attacks by deploying yet more Iranian-made attack drones.
In an address to the nation, Zelenskyy said that he has information that Russia is planning a “prolonged attack by Shaheds.”
Zelenskyy added that Russia intends to use the drones, which have already been used extensively to attack Ukrainian towns and villages, to exhaust the Ukrainian people, air defense, and energy infrastructure.
The Ukrainian president said that Ukrainian soldiers tasked with intercepting Russian missiles and drones should be “especially attentive.”
While Ukrainian troops have shown that they are capable of intercepting Russian rockets and artillery using Western-supplied air defense systems, an increase in the number of drones deployed by the Russians will drain more of Ukraine’s military resources.
The more time Ukrainian soldiers spend defending against incoming drone and missile strikes, the fewer men and resources Ukraine can spend on making advances on the battlefield.
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Jack Buckby is 19FortyFive’s Breaking News Editor. He is a British author, counter-extremism researcher, and journalist based in New York. Reporting on the U.K., Europe, and the U.S., he works to analyze and understand left-wing and right-wing radicalization, and reports on Western governments’ approaches to the pressing issues of today. His books and research papers explore these themes and propose pragmatic solutions to our increasingly polarized society.
