Mourning and anger in Russia for the death of dozens of soldiers in a bombardment of Ukraine

With flowers and prayers, various concentrations throughout Russia paid tribute this Tuesday to the dozens of soldiers killed in an attack in eastern Ukraine that shocked the country and unleashed a wave of criticism of the army.

Some 200 people participated in a tribute in the city of Samara (center), where some of the dead soldiers were from, an unusual occurrence in Russia where the authorities maintain a hermetic silence about the military casualties in Ukraine.

SIGHT: “Nothing was normal”: the “disconcerting” welcome to the New Year in Vladimir Putin’s Russia

Several people deposited roses or flower crowns before a flame in one of the main squares of the citybowing respectfully or making the sign of the cross, AFP said.

An orthodox priest recited a prayer and then soldiers firing rifles into the air.

According to local media, rallies were held in other cities in the region, such as Togliatti and Syzran.

SIGHT: Ukraine claims to have killed hundreds of Russian soldiers in a single attack

The Russian Defense Ministry said Monday that 63 soldiers were killed by a Ukrainian New Year’s Eve attack on a building where they were stationed in Makiivka.a Russian-occupied city in the region of Donetskwhich Moscow claims to have annexed.

The bereaved lay flowers in memory of more than 60 Russian soldiers who Russia says were killed in a Ukrainian attack. (ARDEN ARKMAN / AFP).

The kyiv government claims the number of victims is much higher.

The losses, among the largest suffered by Moscow in a single attack since the launch of the offensive against Ukraine in February 2022, shocked Russia and untied an avalanche of criticism from nationalist commentators, supporters of military intervention.

The emotion caused by these losses, another blow to the Kremlin after the setbacks suffered a few months ago, was reinforced by the fact that the dead soldiers were reservists who had been mobilized.

“I haven’t slept for three days,” said Ekaterina Kolotovkinawife of a Russian general and chairwoman of the 2nd Women’s Council of the Combined Army Guards, at the ceremony in Samara.

“We are in permanent contact with the wives of our boys. It’s very hard, it’s scary. But we can’t break. pain unites”he assured.

“For the first time since the beginning of the special military operation, I have asked (my husband) to avenge us for the tears of the mothers, for the pain of the inconsolable widows and for the orphans”, he added.

A Telegram group, called Russian “widows of soldiers,” called on Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday to push for a “large-scale mobilization” to “save” Russia.

“Who will they punish?”

Three days after the attack Makiivkaannounced in the middle of the week of Orthodox Christmas holidays, the Russian president has not yet reacted.

The Kremlin indicated only on Tuesday that it had requested a report from the defense minister, Sergei Shoiguon the state of the materiel provided to the Russian troops in Ukraine and on possible “measures” to reinforce it.

According to the Russian Defense Ministrythe missiles were fired by HIMARS multiple rocket launchers, a weapon supplied by the United States to Ukrainian forces.

After the defeats suffered by Moscow in recent months in Kharkov (northeast) and Kherson (south), which provoked criticism of the Russian General Staff, the massacre of Makiivka marks another setback, with calls to punish those responsible.

Several voices were raised to denounce the fact that the ammunition was stored in the same building used to house the soldiers, who were also allowed to use their mobile phones, which made it possible for them to be geolocated by the Ukrainian artillerymen.

“What conclusions will they draw? Who will they punish?” said Mikhail Matveyev, a communist lawmaker for Samara.

Several pro-war commentators, who have a large following on social media, also questioned the 63 death toll, which they consider an underestimate.

The Rybar Telegram account, with more than a million subscribers, denounced the “criminal ingenuity” of housing the soldiers next to an ammunition depot whose explosion would have aggravated the death toll.

In Ukrainethe government claims to have suffered several Russian attacks since New Year.

On Monday, the country came under fire from Iranian-made drones again, but most were shot down, according to authorities. President Volodymyr Zelensky declared that his army had shot down more than 80 aircraft.

According to the governor of the Kharkov region (northeast), Oleg Synegoubov, the second largest city in Ukraine and its region were targeted by Russian missiles.

The most intense fighting is taking place around the city of Bakhmut (east), which is not strategically important but which Russian forces, led by the Wagner mercenary group, have been trying to take for months.

Source: Elcomercio