Ukraine has claimed to have killed as many as 400 Russians in a strike on a military base in an occupied part of Donetsk.
Kyiv’s forces fired at the city of Makiivka and other parts of the Moscow-controlled eastern region on New Year’s Eve.
The Moscow-installed administration of the Donetsk region in Ukraine said on Sunday that at least 25 rockets were fired at the region in the attack.
Russia’s Tass state news agency said at least 15 people were injured. Ukraine’s defence ministry said as many as 400 Russians were killed there “as a result of ‘careless handling of heating devices’”.
Igor Girkin, a former commander of pro-Russian troops in east Ukraine who has emerged as one of the highest profile Russian nationalist military bloggers, also said the death toll was in the hundreds. Ammunition had been stored in the building, which detonated when the barracks was hit.
Waves of Russian drone strikes on Ukraine followed, with missiles overnight targeting infrastructure in Ukraine’s capital and causing some power outages, officials said.
