The unauthorized use of cell phones exposed the location of Russian troops to the Ukrainian military, prompting the weekend rocket attack that killed scores of Russians, a Kremlin official said Wednesday.
Lieutenant General Sergey Sevryukov also said the death toll had risen to 89 servicemembers – up from 63 – in the Russian-controlled Ukrainian town of Makiivka. He said a commission was investigating the strike but that “it has already become obvious at present that the main cause of the occurrence was activation and large-scale use, contrary to the ban, of personal phones by personnel within the reach of enemy’s destruction means.”
Sevryukov said the Russian military is taking measures to ensure a similar incident does not happen again, adding that officials responsible would be punished. The attack was among the most deadly events Russia has faced in a war that has dragged on for more than 10 months with no indication it will soon end.
The British defense ministry, in an assessment issued Wednesday, said the extent of the damage indicated a “realistic possibility” that ammunition stored near troop accommodations exploded during the strike, creating secondary blasts.
“The Russian military has a record of unsafe ammunition storage from well before the current war,” the assessment says. “This incident highlights how unprofessional practices contribute to Russia’s high casualty rate.”
Other developments:
►Unconfirmed Ukrainian reports put the death tollof the the weekend rocket strike much higher. The Strategic Communications Directorate of Ukraine’s armed forces claimed Sunday that around 400 mobilized Russian soldiers were killed in a vocational school building.
►The Russian regiment’s deputy commander was among the dead, per the nation’s defense ministry.
►In Samara, in southwestern Russia, locals on Tuesday gathered for a memorial. Unconfirmed reports in Russian-language media said the victims were mobilized reservists from the region.
UKRAINE CONTINUES TO INTERCEPT DRONES:Russia does ‘not plan to end the war,’ Ukraine official says
Some Russians reject cell phone explanation
Andrei Medvedev, Russian TV host, dismissed the explanation in a message on Telegram, calling it a reflection of the adage that cities are taken by soldiers while wars are won by generals.
“Of course it is not the fault of the commander who gave the order to place the personnel in the building. Not the one who did not take care of the means of disguise in advance,” he wrote sarcastically. “It is not the fault of the one who did not begin to settle the fighters in the basements. And a simple fighter with a phone, it turns out, is to blame.”
The Russian military blogger Grey Zone wrote on Telegram that while the enemy sometimes can use cell phones to track troops, “in this case, it is 99% a lie and an attempt to shift the blame.”
Iranian drone made up of mostly US parts: CNN
Parts made by more than a dozen U.S. and Western companies were found inside an Iranian drone downed in Ukraine last fall, CNN reported, citing a Ukrainian intelligence assessment the media outlet said it obtained. Of the 52 components Ukrainians removed from the Iranian Shahed-136 drone, 40 appear to have been manufactured by 13 American companies, the others by companies in Canada, Switzerland, Japan, Taiwan, and China, according to the assessment.
The weapons research group Conflict Armament Research issued multiple reports last year citing the use of western parts in the drones, and the White House has created a task force aimed at cutting off the supply of Western-made parts to Iran.
Contributing: The Associated Press
KYIV RESIDENTS RINGING IN NEW YEAR caught in Russian attack; Zelenskyy says Ukraine will not forgive: Updates
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