Russia blames cell phone use for deadly strike
The unauthorized use of cell phones exposed the location of Russian troops to the Ukrainian military, prompting last weekend's rocket attack that killed scores of Russians, a Kremlin official said Wednesday.
Hi, it's Julius with an update on Ukraine.
Lieutenant General Sergey Sevryukov said a commission was investigating the strike but that "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."
Sevryukov also said the death toll had risen to 89 servicemembers in the Russian-controlled Ukrainian town of Makiivka. Unconfirmed Ukrainian reports put the death toll from the rocket strike 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.
The attack was among the most deadly events Russia has faced in a war that has dragged on for more than 10 months with no indication it will soon end.
Some Russians dismissed the explanation as an effort by the Kremlin to deflect blame away from leadership. The British defense ministry, in an assessment issued Wednesday, noted that the extent of the damage indicated a "realistic possibility" that ammunition stored near troop accommodations exploded during the strike, creating secondary blasts.
More on the Russia-Ukraine crisis:
- Ukraine’s state grid operator said it has established power consumption limits across the nation and that emergency outages will be introduced if the limits are exceeded.
- Russia plans to hold another draft early this month, two top Ukrainian officials have warned.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.