AFTERMATH

Russians Rage at Commanders After Missile Massacre

Russia’s defense ministry admitted 63 troops were killed in the attack—one of Ukraine’s deadliest strikes of the war.

Russian lawmakers and commentators have expressed outrage at Kremlin commanders after scores of troops were killed in a devastating missile strike in Ukraine. A temporary barracks holding Russian soldiers was reduced to rubble on New Year’s Eve in Makiivka, eastern Ukraine, when it was hit by four rockets fired from U.S.-made HIMARS launchers, the Russian defense ministry said, adding that 63 of its troops were killed in the attack. The operation—one of the deadliest single strikes since the start of the conflict—has sparked outrage among Russian nationalists who have called for military officials to be punished. “What happened in Makiivka is horrible,” wrote Archangel Spetznaz Z, a Russian military blogger, adding: “Who came up with the idea to place personnel in large numbers in one building, where even a fool understands that even if they hit with artillery, there will be many wounded or dead?” Sergei Mironov, a Russian lawmaker and former chairman of the Federation Council, also called for criminal consequences for officials who “allowed the concentration of military personnel in an unprotected building” and “all the higher authorities who did not provide the proper level of security.”