DONETSK, UKRAINE – DECEMBER 30: Soldiers from the 59th brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine fire a grad missile at Russian positions in the Russian-controlled Donbas region on December 30, 2022 in Donetsk, Ukraine. Large parts of the Donetsk region have been held by Russian-backed separatists since 2014. Russia has been trying to expand its control here since the February 24 invasion. (Photo by Pierre Crom/Getty Images)
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Ukraine killed dozens of Russian soldiers using US-supplied artillery to attack a base in the occupied part of the country on New Year’s Eve, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday.
Sixty-three soldiers were killed after 4 HIMARS artillery warheads hit a “temporary base,” the Russian Defense Ministry said Monday in a Telegram post. Two projectiles were shot down, the statement added.
Earlier, a senior Russian-backed official in occupied Donetsk said a “vocational school” in the town of Makiivka had been hit by US-supplied HIMARS.
“Many were killed and wounded,” said Daniil Bezsonov, in a Telegram post on Sunday.
While Ukraine did not claim responsibility for the attack, the armed forces sent a cryptic message on Telegram Sunday night: “As a result of ‘careless handling of heating devices,’ neglecting safety measures, and smoking in an unspecified place, Santa packed around 400. corpses of Russian soldiers in bags.”
“Around 300 others have injuries of varying degrees of severity,” the account added.
NBC News could not verify the claims from either side. Ukrainian officials were not immediately available for comment.
On Sunday, the leader of the Donetsk People’s Republic, Denis Pushilin, said that many civilian facilities were under Ukrainian fire during New Year’s Eve, according to TASS.