Ukraine war live updates: Russia blames use of mobile phones for deadly Makiivka attack; Ukraine preparing for new offensives

Britain’s Ministry of Defense said on Wednesday it’s likely that ammunition is being stored near a Russian military complex that was destroyed in a Ukrainian attack on New Year’s Eve, highlighting unsafe and unprofessional practices by the Russian army.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said 89 Russian servicemen had died in the attack on the building that was being used as a college and temporary accommodation for newly conscripted soldiers. It’s a rare admission of multiple losses by Russia, which blamed the attack on personnel using mobile phones, saying this had enabled Ukraine to target the location.

Britain’s Ministry of Defense remarked on Twitter that Ukraine had completely destroyed a school building in Makiivka in Donetsk “which Russia had almost certainly taken over for military use.”

“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.”

It noted that the building was only 7.7 miles from the Avdiivka section of front line, “one of the most intensely contested areas of the conflict.”

“The Russian military has a record of unsafe ammunition storage from well before the current war, but this incident highlights how unprofessional practices contribute to Russia’s high casualty rate,” U.K.’s defense ministry added.

— Holly Ellyatt

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday night that Kyiv is prepared for renewed offensives and mobilization by Russia.

Zelenskyy said on Telegram that he had spoken with his counterparts in Canada, the Netherlands, U.K. and Norway on Tuesday, with the conversation focusing on “what Ukraine immediately needs most right now — on the eve of those new mobilization processes being prepared by the terrorist state.”

“Right now is the moment when, together with our partners, we should strengthen our defense. We have no doubt that the present masters of Russia will throw everything they have left, and all they can muster, into trying to turn the tide of the war, and at least delay their defeat. We have to disrupt this Russian scenario. We are preparing for it,” Zelenskyy said, adding that “any attempt at their new offensive must fail.”

— Holly Ellyatt

Russia has been left reeling as the death toll rises following a Ukrainian strike on newly conscripted soldiers in Makiivka, a town in the partially Russian-occupied eastern Donetsk region in east Ukraine.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday night that the death toll from the attack, which took place on New Year’s Eve, had risen to 89, according to reports by Russian state news agencies.

It had previously said 63 soldiers had died in the attack, which struck a college for conscripts in Makiivka, in a rare admission of multiple losses.

It blamed the unauthorized use of mobile phones for the strike, saying their use had allowed Ukraine to locate and strike its personnel.

“This factor allowed the enemy to locate and determine the coordinates of the location of military personnel for a missile strike,” the ministry said in a statement, reported by RIA Novosti.

The ministry said Ukraine had struck the building in Makiivka using missiles from a HIMARS rocket system and claimed that Russian forces had intercepted four of six rockets. It claimed it had destroyed the HIMARS rocket system from which the attack was carried out. CNBC was unable to verify the defense ministry’s claims.

The attack has caused consternation in Russia, with mourners gathering in Samara, the region where the majority of the mobilized soldiers reportedly came from.

— Holly Ellyatt

Moscow thought it would emerge from the Ukraine invasion with a bigger role on the global stage. But it’s growing more isolated and looks likely to face a long-term economic decline. CNBC’s Ted Kemp reports.

Russian nationalists and some lawmakers have demanded punishment for commanders they accused of ignoring dangers as anger grew over the killing of dozens of Russian soldiers in one of the deadliest strikes of the Ukraine conflict.

In a rare disclosure, Russia’s defense ministry said 63 soldiers were killed in the Ukrainian strike on New Year’s Eve that destroyed a temporary barracks in a vocational college in Makiivka, twin city of the Russian-occupied regional capital of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.

Russian critics said the soldiers were being housed alongside an ammunition dump at the site, which the Russian defense ministry said was hit by four rockets fired from U.S.-made HIMARS launchers.

TV footage showed a huge building reduced to rubble as cranes and bulldozers picked through concrete debris lying several feet deep.

Ukraine and some Russian nationalist bloggers put the Makiivka death toll in the hundreds, though pro-Russian officials say those estimates are exaggerated.

Rallies to commemorate the dead were held in several Russian cities, including Samara, where some came from, RIA Novosti news agency reported. Mourners laid flowers in the center of Samara.

“I haven’t slept for three days, Samara hasn’t slept. We are constantly in touch with the wives of our guys. It’s very hard and scary. But we can’t be broken. Grief unites … We will not forgive, and, definitely, victory will be ours,” RIA quoted Yekaterina Kolotovkina, a representative of a women’s council at an army unit, as telling one of the rallies.

— Reuters

Emergency crews sifted through the rubble of a building struck by Ukrainian rockets, killing at least 63 Russian soldiers barracked there, in the latest blow to the Kremlin’s war strategy as Ukraine says Moscow’s tactics could be shifting.

An Associated Press video of the scene in Makiivka, a town in the partially Russian-occupied eastern Donetsk region, showed five cranes and emergency workers removing big chunks of concrete under a clear blue sky.

In the attack, which apparently happened last weekend, Ukrainian forces fired rockets from a U.S.-provided HIMARS multiple launch system, according to a Russian Defense Ministry statement.

It was one of the deadliest attacks on the Kremlin’s forces since the war began more than 10 months ago and an embarrassment that stirred renewed criticism inside Russia of the way the war is being conducted.

The Russian statement Monday about the attack provided few other details. Other, unconfirmed reports put the death toll 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 in Makiivka and about 300 more were wounded. That claim couldn’t be independently verified. The Russian statement said the strike occurred “in the area of Makiivka” and didn’t mention the vocational school.

— Reuters

Russia aims to “exhaust” Ukraine with a prolonged stream of attacks across the country, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address.

“We must ensure – and we will do everything for this – that this goal of terrorists fails like all the others,” he said. “Now is the time when everyone involved in the protection of the sky should be especially attentive.”

Russian strikes on Ukrainian cities and infrastructure have ramped up of late, marking three consecutive nights of bombardment in the latest stream of attacks that began on New Year’s Eve. The strikes target Ukraine’s energy facilities in particular, leaving millions of people without heating and power amid the bitter winter cold.

Russian forces are increasingly leaning on deadly Iranian-made Shahed drones, which have wrought havoc on Ukraine’s cities. Zelenskyy said that Ukrainian air defenses shot down more than 80 of such drones in the first days of January.

— Natasha Turak