Ukraine Tracked Russian Troops’ Phones to Strike Makiivka Barracks: Russia

Russia has accused its own personnel of using mobile phones that allegedly led the Ukrainians right to them and strike the army barrack in Makiivka, Donetsk People’s Republic.

"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. This factor enabled the enemy to take the bearing and determine coordinates of servicemen location to deliver a missile strike. Required measures are being taken at present to exclude such tragic incidents in the future," First Deputy Head of the Main Military-Political Department of the Russian Armed Forces Lieutenant General Sergey Sevryukov told reporters.

A commission investigating circumstances of the incident is working and required measures are being taken to exclude such tragedies in the future, Sevryukov added.

Meanwhile, the defense ministry has revised the number of soldiers who died in the deadly Ukrainian strike from 63 to 89. It said four out of six high-explosive HIMARS rockets struck the town’s temporary deployment base — a school building that stood near an ammunition dump and weapons cache.  Remaining two rockets were shot down by Russian air defenses.

The Ukrainian military claimed in a Telegram post that the Makiivka attack took place on New Year’s eve, killing 400 Russian soldiers and injuring 300.

British Intelligence said the attack took place on December 31. “Given the extent of the damage, there is a realistic possibility that ammunition was being stored near to troop accommodation, which detonated during the strike creating secondary explosions.”

The targeted building was only 12.5km from the Avdiivka sector of front line, one of the most intensely contested areas of the conflict.