© Reuters. Ukrainian servicemen ride an Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC), as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in the village of Torske, Donetsk region, Ukraine December 30, 2022. REUTERS/Yevhen Titov
(Reuters) – 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 Ukraine war’s deadliest strikes.
FIGHTING
* In a rare disclosure, Russia said 63 Russian soldiers had been killed in a Ukrainian New Year’s Eve attack on their quarters in the town of Makiivka when four rockets fired from U.S.-made HIMARS launchers hit the site. Ukraine said the Russian death toll was in the hundreds, though pro-Russian officials called that an exaggeration.
* Russian military bloggers said the huge destruction was a result of storing ammunition in the same building as a barracks, despite commanders knowing it was within range of Ukrainian rockets.
* Ukraine said on Monday it had shot down all 39 drones Russia had fired in a third straight night of air strikes against civilian targets in the capital Kyiv and other cities.
* A Russian missile attack destroyed an ice arena in the town of Druzhkivka in Ukraine’s Donetsk region on Monday, Ukraine’s ice hockey federation said, following earlier reports of a missile hitting the town and injuring two people.
* A Russian-backed military information centre in the Donetsk region said there had been 69 Ukrainian attacks on the region, including Makiivka, on Monday.
DIPLOMACY
* Zelenskiy said Ukraine awaiting 2023’s first tranche of European Union (EU) macrofinancial aid in January, after speaking to European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen.
* Japan’s “anti-Russian course” makes peace treaty talks impossible, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko said in comments published by the state TASS news agency on Tuesday. Russia and Japan have not formally ended World War Two hostilities.
