- Around 60 Russian soldiers died in eastern Ukraine after their training area was hit by missiles.
- A military blogger, Andrey Morozov, reportedly died by suicide after being pressured to remove a report about Russian losses in battles.
Around 60 Russian soldiers were killed in eastern Ukraine when the area they were training in got hit by two missiles. This happened in Donetsk region while they were waiting for a senior commander. Video footage shows many dead soldiers.
This attack occurred just before Russian President Vladimir Putin met with his Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. Shoigu mentioned Russian successes on the front line and the capture of Avdiivka. But neither Russia nor Ukraine has officially said anything about the incident near Trudovske village in Donetsk.
Reports say soldiers from the 36th motorized rifle brigade, usually based in Siberia, were waiting for Maj-Gen Oleg Moiseyev’s arrival, commander of the 29th Army of the Eastern military region. A survivor said their commanders made them stand in an open field when they were hit by missiles fired from a US-made launch system called HIMARS.
Some videos and photos show many soldiers dead in the field. Estimates suggest at least 60 died, according to survivors. The BBC is checking the footage.
In another development, there are reports that military blogger Andrey Morozov, known as Murz, has died by suicide. He had a large following on Telegram and claimed he was pressured by the military to remove a report about Russian losses, including in Avdiivka. He said around 16,000 troops were killed or injured and 300 armored vehicles destroyed.
Morozov mentioned he was silenced by state TV propagandists but didn’t want to be killed by them, so he decided to end his life.
Russia usually doesn’t report its military casualties, but some pro-Russian military bloggers do. Ukraine also talks about thousands of Russian soldiers killed in recent battles.
According to BBC Russian and Mediazona, 45,123 Russian soldiers are confirmed dead since Russia invaded Ukraine, with 6,614 deaths since October last year. There’s been a noticeable increase in weekly deaths since then.
